by Sean Cooper
Kim Cascone's first release following the dissolution of his popular Heavenly Music Corporation project is also a revisiting of some of the sonic territories of his earlier work as PGR. The album began as a single track to accompany Cascone's contribution to a book of essays about computer music development platform Csound, edited by Richard Boulanger, and expanded into a full-length CD at the behest of Boulanger and others who figured he was onto something. An exploration of themes combining bleeding edge digital technology with rootings about in computer music's prehistory -- Cascone used Csound to create acoustical models of early electronic instrument specs -- blueCube is a musical expostulation on the &alchemical space& specific to composing with machines, and is some of his most enthralling work to date.