Autechre - T ess xi

What this video is

Released in February–March 2013 as track five of Autechre's eleventh studio album Exai on Warp Records, 'T ess xi' arrives at a moment of peak abstraction in the duo's career. Sean Booth confirmed the track was composed in 2011, and its harmonic architecture — a 16-bar Eb major seventh-rooted progression that descends by semitone on each repetition — represents a rare moment of tonal legibility within Exai's…

Why it matters

As a flagship track from Autechre's most critically acclaimed post-2000 album, 'T ess xi' is a key document in the IDM/experimental electronic canon. Its semitone-descending harmonic loop, described by Pitchfork as built from 'fluorescent soul keyboards,' demonstrates how Autechre synthesized…