Five track ep 

1. Prelu-Topia 

2. Unresolved Conflict 

3. Can't Scap(B)-(no)2 My Head 

4. Glowverse 

5. Input Complex. 



(All five tracks available only on the limited edition CD). 



Inspired by two main elements: traditional music forms such as the somewhat standardised Suite of Bach and Handel’s day, which consisted of a set of dances, usually six, and the lied. And secondly, a collection of science fiction stories by Isaac Asimov themed around a robotic future. 



The First Law Suite music takes inspiration from the Suite, such as the Prelude, Courante, Allemande, and the Sarabande. But track 3, “Can’t Scap(E)=(nc)2 My Head” is inspired by the Lied or Art Song, where by an unsophisticated folk-song is transformed into a serious musical composition, either in strophic form, or as one continuous whole; in this case, in strophic form. 



It’s perhaps too obvious a thing to say, but electronic music isn’t quite the same as the instrumental music of the Baroque, so the situation here is somewhat tangled. Maybe all that remains of the music of old, in The First Law Suite, is a musical ghost of a ghost, or a hint of a ghost. 



The second element, a collection of robot stories by the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov, is not a literalist musical conversion of any of the texts. Instead, the occasional eidolon of storytelling atmosphere finds its way into the sonic empyrean. 



Of course, the first of The Three Laws of Robotics, as imagined by Asimov, who says: “1. A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm” remains apt, maybe more so today than in his day. And given the relentless barrage that is the sonic atrocity of Neo-Liberalism’s money-machine muzak forced into our ears at every turn, whether we like it or not, perhaps the urbane music of old, or something like it, is now becoming vital.

https://sconstantinou.bandcamp.com/album/the-first-law-suite-5-track-ep

By Stace Constantinou

January 8, 2017