The rain-soaked UK might be getting Richard D. James down, but it hasn’t stopped him from sharing new music. Aphex Twin uploaded two tracks to his user18081971 SoundCloud account on Thursday, November 27th, marking his first new material since last December’s surprise compilation Music From The Merch Desk (2016-2023).
The two songs, “Zahl am1 live track 1” and “Zahl am1 live track 1c f760m1 unfinshd,” appear to be alternate versions of the same composition. Both titles reference the Zähl audio mixer James used during the production process. The cover image shows the British electronic music pioneer at the beach in Sicily with his partner, filmmaker Cordelia Angel Clarke, offering a rare glimpse into the notoriously private artist’s personal life.
“Got many requests for this one from a few years back,” James wrote in the description for the unfinished version. “Italy, pic with my love from Sicily recently. Need sun, relentlessly raining in the UK. Mixed down on the Zähl, think there are better mixes, will upload them if I find them.” True to form, his note ended with a comma rather than a period, the kind of idiosyncratic detail that’s become part of the Aphex Twin mystique.
Listen below:
The SoundCloud drop continues James’s pattern of surprise releases through unconventional channels. While major artists carefully orchestrate album campaigns months in advance, the IDM legend prefers dumping unpolished gems onto the internet with haphazard filenames and minimal context. It’s a approach that keeps fans perpetually on alert, never quite sure when the next batch of material might surface or in what form it will arrive.
Whether these tracks will receive an official release remains unclear. For now, they exist in that characteristically ambiguous Aphex Twin space between demo and finished product, live recording and studio mix. James recently appeared in a photo shared by The Orb following their November 22nd performance at Princess Pavilion in Falmouth, suggesting he’s been active on the UK electronic music circuit. In August, he released an expanded reissue of Surfing On Sine Waves, recorded under his Polygon Window alias, proving his vast catalogue remains as vital as whatever he happens to upload next.
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