ART IN THE AGE OF AUTOMATION

Art must tum against itself, in opposition to its own concept, and thus become uncertain of itself right into its innermost fiber. Yet art is not to be dismissed simply by its abstract negation. By attacking what seemed to be its foundation throughout the whole of its tradition, art has been qualitatively transformed; it itself becomes qualitatively other. It can do this because through the ages by means of its form, art has turned against the status quo and what merely exists just as much as it has come to its aid by giving form to its elements. Art can no more be reduced to the general formula of consolation than to its opposite.

(Theodor W. Adorno, Aesthetic Theory, 1977).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxixCCWnzFY (A Luminous Beam and RGB are my favorite ones)

Our sound falls between many genres, jazz, electronic music even minimalism in places, but naturally it’s an amalgamation of everything we’ve listened to'. That's Portico Quartet’s Jack Wyllie describing the sound of their new album Art in the Age of Automation.

'We’ve really gone into detail with the sounds and production, building dense layers and textures but retaining a live, organic feel to it. We wanted to use acoustic instruments but find ways in which they could interact with more modern production techniques and technologies to create something that was identifiably us but sounded fresh and exciting, futuristic even.' This is most prevalent ‘Rushing’, ‘A Luminous Beam’ and title track ‘Art in the Age of Automation’. Dense, fuggy, clouds of synths part obscure crisp drumming delicate saxophone riffs. And it is this obscuring that is at the heart of the album. As the album progresses, and the productions get denser, it becomes harder to pinpoint what is organic instrumentation and what has been manipulated digitally. The juxtaposition of hang drums and minimal techno workouts is sublime, and shouldn’t work but does so perfectly.

(Review: drownedinsound.com)

Meaning is only legitimate in the artwork insofar as it is objectively more than the work's

own meaning

(Adorno, 1977).