Robin Fox follows his 2010 solo album A Handful of Automation (DEMEGO 012LP) with A Small Prometheus, a significant work that exposes a very different audio-world to that previously encountered. In time since A Handful of Automation, Fox has been highly active with his widely acclaimed RGB (red green blue) laser show along with a collaboration with Atom TM (Double Vision), which premiered at Unsound Festival in 2014. A Small Prometheus was developed as a soundtrack to a dance work of the same name co-created with Australian choreographer Stephanie Lake. The outline here was to explore the themes of combustion and dissipating heat in various physical systems. Greatly extending the language of his creative output, Fox constructs a synthesis of electronic and acoustic sources to create a deeply nuanced excursion through space and time, timbre and texture. There is a subtle intensity to the works here: "A Pound of Flesh" is an industrial-strength spiraling drone, intoxicating and disorientating; "Antlers" takes the listener on an 11-minute ride through a vortex of pulsing and swirling electronics; "A Small Prometheus" is an unnerving combination of distressed field recordings, close-mic'd crackle, and a foreboding distant pulse. "Through Sky" starts out with a slow, menacing, rhythmic backbone that hosts an arsenal of small sounds before a certain wind supplants all in an admirable and somewhat haunted exchange. With its combination of vast caverns, spiraling counterflows, and microscopic investigations, A Small Prometheus opens up a new world of sound in Fox's personal trajectory. Limited LP version includes six tracks; two additional melodic, rhythmic bonus tracks can be sourced from Bandcamp, further expanding the rich, elaborate sound world of Robin Fox. Cover image by Robin Fox. Layout by Stephen O'Malley. Mastered by Byron Scullin. Heat recordings engineered by Byron Scullin.
