Automatisme is the electronic music project of Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec-based producer William Jourdain. Since 2013 Jourdain has released a brilliant series of albums and tracks under this moniker, exploring various intersections of drone, glitch, dub techno, ambient, electro-acoustic and noise. Starting with site-specific field recordings, Automatisme samples, processes, signal bends and transforms this source material into soundscapes charting a broad spectrum spanning minimalist pulse, methodically additive beat, stacked-tone maximalism, spatial drone and arrhythmic ambient/noise.
This new a/v single “Non-Representation Field” is the 12th entry in Constellation’s Corona Borealis Longplay Singles Series, with an accompanying short film by Marilou Lyonnais Archambault. 100% of proceeds go to the artist
“We follow the alternate and accidental route of non-representation. It is used to signify the outside.” – Achim Szepanski
“This quote by philosopher and Mille Plateaux record label founder Achim Szepanski is the basis for the audiovisual work of “Non-representation Field”. Automatisme explores pathways of Mille Plateaux’s Ultrablack Of Music movement, processing these concepts with an ambient dub track that contains generative and euclidian partitions and modulations. Ableton Live and Max MSP software programming make the pads and bass instruments interpret the same archipelago of signals slightly differently with every temporal activiation. This recording is one instantiation. Parts of the source audio come from recordings made with a Buchla modular synthesizer at Stockholm’s Elektronmusik Studion (EMS) during a residency in 2019.” -Automatisme
“Vidéo binaire evoking the iridescence of sounds and images and the dualism of nature and machine, produced using a selection of video samples from the web, which were then projected and filmed on folded paper structures – le froissement (creasing, crumpling; light trauma or injury) as a gesture of resistance. The video portrays the buzzing of natural landscapes, ineffable and transitory physical disturbances, the resonance of appearing and disappearing via the manipulation of creased and wrinkled images, as echoes of an exhausted and worn out territory. This experimental clip eulogizes the non-place as a refuge in post-modern times, in post-internet times.” – Marilou Lyonnais Archambault
Automatisme “Non-representation Field”
Corona Borealis Longplay Singles Series Constellation 2021
Music: Automatisme
Video and artwork: Marilou Lyonnais Archambault
Mastering: PHEEK
“Non-representation Field” is exclusive to Bandcamp and PWYC for the first week of release. Both of Automatisme’s Constellation albums are on sale during this time – save on your format of choice when buying via Bandcamp. Proceeds from all these sales go 100% to the artist, as part of Constellation’s pandemic
initiative for immediate artist support.
Hear select cuts from Automatisme alongside a wide range of “electronic” tracks spanning the label’s history and styles: experimental song, modern minimalism, electroacoustic maximalism, systems music, synthetic improv, techtonica, lo-fi, trance, poly-ambient drift, and much more. LISTEN
Automatisme’s latest album Alter– came out in 2020 on the celebrated electronic label Mille Plateaux. Listen to it here: https://forceincmilleplateaux.bandcamp.com/album/alter