Paul Schütze "Deus Ex Machina" 2xLP

This 59 minute piece was conceived as part of a total environment for the exhibition Deus Ex Machina. The project as a whole seeks to define and articulate the emotional, cultural and aesthetic manifestations of man’s uneasy relationship with technology. The music takes the form of a film score complete with stylized dialogue and actions. During the 59 minutes four basic layers repeat in various configurations.

The effect is to provide a template of narrative in which the pieces exhibited may become protagonists, situated in hypothetical scenarios which illustrate the contentions of Deus Ex Machina and the transmission of information.

Review:

“Paul Schütze’s debut album from 1989 sets his stall out from the start; with a cyber update on Jon Hassell’s notion of ‘Fourth World Music”. Schütze’s music always sounds like it could be an alternative soundtrack to ‘Blade Runner’ (be aware fellow purists, I did state “alternative”), and this album is probably the perfect candidate if in some other dimension the Vangelis OST was no longer deemed satisfactory (such a dimension surely cannot exist). The listener feels like they’re walking through the rain soaked, neon-lit streets of a future LA with Deckard.” – Jay Harper