AUTORHYTHM’s “Substantia Nigra” from the project’s latest album Songs For the Nervous System (2023) is driven by a low cycling pulse as rhythm as it seems points in a network flash and flare in tones and percussive textures as the track builds to a distorted melody that bubbles with an urgency like an entire network of a factory coming online or a deep space colony in great sleeper ships activating a series of protocols to bring its cargo out of stasis in order to explore the possibilities of a new world and hopefully not exploit it and extract it to extinction with outmoded habits of human civilization. Halfway through the song’s near eleven minutes the tenor changes and low crackling white noise enters the field of hearing and a distant metallic beeping like a signal coming through the intergalactic haze. A sound like a dopplering alarm ascends and drops down back into the earlier theme of the distorted melody. It’s like the soundtrack to science fiction film or novel about a real sense of wonder at the unknown and not one that frames scientific discovery and exploration as an act of extending archaic notions of conquest but rather as mutually beneficial comprehension and an authentic attempt at expanding knowledge. Listen to “Substantia Nigra” on Spotify and follow AUTORHYTHM at the links below. Fans of Mort Garson’s Journey to the Moon and Beyond and other works of the great synthesizer pioneer will find a great deal to appreciate here.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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