Formations

Questions of automation and agency in music have been examined repeatedly over the years, from Conlon Nancarrow‘s player pianos through Cristian Vogel‘s Artists in Charge of Expert Systems techno to more recent wranglings with AI. But few have created something so elegant and downright beautiful in the process as Mileece Petre, who used natural cycles and the reactive properties of plants to create this 2003 mini album. It consists of little more than clusters of soft pings, sometimes coming together in melodies, sometimes seeming random — though it gradually accumulates reverb effects and musicality until the closer “Nightfall” with incorporates “real” instrumentation and Mileece’s croon. Yet whether it’s intentional or not becomes moot as the ambience absorbs you: gentler than Eno or even Hiroshi Yoshimura, it’s simply one of the most magical and transformative pieces of ambience ever made. It remains Mileece’s sole album — her work taking her into environmental installations and other research — but it also remains rich with all the nourishing delight it was made with.