Established in 1995, Auto-Pilot (aka Adrian Collier) is synonymous with explorations in music that gravitates around evolving electronic with elements of ambience, synth-pop and alternative. There have been several previous releases with various labels but it has been a whole 5 years since the last one (8-Zero/Flicknife 2015). During this time, Adrian has been involved in the production of pure ambient music projects and sound experiments winning the One World Music award for best ambient album 2018 (Lost In Fractal Forest).
Auto-Pilot performs live with a variety of guest musicians and psychedelic visual projections cast over smoke filled stages. In 2013 Auto-Pilot supported Michael Rother in Guttersloh and returned to Germany the following year attending an electronic music award ceremony having been nominated for both best international artist and album categories.
From the very first line up way back in 1995 several musicians have performed within the Pilot ranks. Most notably, original vocalist Lee Harston-Southern returns on this latest release (3rd track 'In The Machine').
Dive into the electronic scene that is Auto-Pilot's latest release and the first in 5 years, a collection of songs that attempts to fuse the feeling and mood of all the past releases. 'Freak Electric' was initially intended to be a follow on from 'the Atlantic Machine' but the love of early electronic music is hard to shake. Inclusion of tracks such as 'Casio Days', 'Normal Behaviour' and 'I Breath Nothing' are very much in the early 80's time frame and would have sat easily with the 2015 release, '8-Zero'. The ambient experimentation is here, as is the influence of originals such as 'Gary Numan', 'Kraftwerk' and lesser known pioneers like 'The Normal'.
Tracks 'I Breath Nothing' and 'We Will Remember' were both originally written and recorded (on 4-track cassette) in 1987. These re-recorded versions are true to the originals that had remained unreleased until now. A few lyrics early on in 'Casio Days' seem to not make sense, this is because they were part of a one take ghost recording, (made up on the fly). It was decided to keep a few words in from this because of the texture and delivery was spot on. Sometimes life doesn't need to make much sense.
'In The Machine' was co-written by Lee Harston-Southern who is also the vocalist on the track. Lee was in the original 1995 line up and sang on the Ocearina album.
Tracklist:
1 - Take a Ride
2 - You Are
3 - In the Machine
4 - Sugar Pond
5 - Casio Days
6 - Exocity
7 - Normal Behaviour
8 - I Breath Nothing
9 - Atoms
10 - Following Dreams
11 - We Will Remember
12 - Aftermath
Release: 15th July 2020
Label: Broque
