Test Pattern - second CD release from Ryoji Ikeda together with multimedia project datamatics which is only audio part of breathtaking installation. Thereby Ikeda widens the spectrum of audiovisual performances called for artistic representations of endless data streams surrounding a person.In this new album data, received from different sources (graphic and video files, sound, text) are programmatically transformed into bar codes (depicted on the album cover) and binar codes transforming into sound stream.
Manipulations with these sounds gave as a result 16 tracks which would make interested any fan of experimental music.
Drawing analogy with previous album Dataplex we may say that Test Pattern is its logical continuation. Complication of sound texture is not so obvious and each track became more 'autonomous'. Therefore no cardinal changes can be heard - mosaics of simple-structure micro sounds with ultra speed create complicated rhythmical construcions, covering the whole thinkable frequency spectrum. Tireless genious Ikeda stubbornly keeps testing both the listener and their acoustic systems.
Label warns - don't listen with high volume, I'd add: don't try to listen to it in headphones.
- raster-noton