Cold Comfort: Autechre Releases 12 Brilliant Live Sets from 2023 and 2024

And Thomas Brinkmann drops a new post-election track called ‘Deep Trouble.’

Music can help lighten dark days. Can’t it?

This morning, German techno genius Thomas Brinkmann issued a new EP, seemingly in response to the insane news of the Orange Man’s impending return to the White House. The first track on it is called “Deep Trouble.” It’s a kind of portent, one whose ominous title expresses the feeling a lot of us are having today.

Also this morning, smart people have been expressing hope amid the chaos.

“I’ve been listening to music. It’s so beautiful, isn’t it?,” wrote writer/performance artist Lisa Carver, a.k.a. Suckdog, on social media, of her morning. “Tallulah is still sleeping. She doesn’t know. I cleaned the kitchen so that at least she will have a cozy atmosphere to hold, a bit, her devastation. Though maybe she won’t be broken up, because she predicted it. Pollyanna that I am, I got quite the surprise at 4 AM when checking my phone. Later today I will commission paintings from my favorite real life living artists. If I can manage to get in the mood, I will write. If I can’t, I’ll tell myself, ‘It’s okay, baby.’ I will concentrate on the neighborhood. I think I’ll plan a little perennial garden in the front of my new old house. How are you handling it?”

Not so well, Lisa, but thanks for asking. As trite as it may sound, though, music is beautiful, and the communities surrounding and amplifying music are, too. Sanctuaries at our disposal, the spaces that support connection through delivering and receiving organized signals are, in essence, group therapy sessions. We need to lean into these communal experiences with all our might.

For the past week, many friends of ISC have been pounding their keyboards with enthusiastic raves about a feast of soundboard recordings from Autechre’s recent European and Australian tours. Released in early November via Warp and their website, each 60-80 minute set is its own epiphany: heavy, frantic, chaotic, with synthetic shards that spear and shatter, tracks that are as imposing as skyscrapers — and which occasionally collapse into a mess of digital detritus and pulsing waves. Scratched bursts. Shimmering respites. Machine-gun percussion. The kind of stuff that can obliterate intrusive thoughts, at least for a time, about the state of the world outside Autechre’s domain. Because every Autechre show is a journey in real-time world-building, one that shakes and pulls, veers, skids, and occasionally explodes. While their sound is the sonic opposite of the Grateful Dead, they share that same allure: each night is distinct, drawing dedicated fans who seek out recordings and revel in their singularity.

The dozen new sets open with an Aug. 25, 2023 gig in Melbourne, then move to Sydney before shifting to European cities like Brussels, Paris, Lyon, Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon, and London. While some sets start with similar cues and textures, each performance soon spirals into fresh, unpredictable territory. In Venice, part of La Biennale di Venezia in October ’23, deep thumps evolve into metallic clangs, creating a sonic architecture unique to that night. In Spain, the two sets open with an identical electronic wail but split almost instantly into completely divergent soundscapes.

Barcelona, especially, is a wonder. Those who listen at high volume might even be able to hear the remnants of a falling empire. Turn it up even louder and, if you listen closely, you can hear the light shining through the darkness.