Tom Middleton becomes GCom and announces solo album on !K7
One half of Global Communication becomes whole of GCom
Tom Middleton, one half of classic electronic ambient duo Global Communication with Mark Pritchard, has unveiled his new solo project GCOM, together with a new album E2-XO, out on October 29 via !K7.
‘GCOM’ is short for ‘Galactic Communication’, and is described by the artist as the “21st-century solo recalibration of the Global Communication and collaboration”. It follows Global Communication’s ambient classic 76:14, reissued via Warp last year alongside a collection of rare EPs and their wholesale Chapterhouse album remix.
The new project draws on Tom’s various scientific interests – including neuroscience and music psychology, exoplanet exploration, astrophysics and cosmology, anthropogenic climate change, and planetary stewardship.
As the artist puts it, GCOM expresses the global need to cultivate deeper human and planetary empathy if we are to “evolve in consciousness to travel beyond ourselves in mind and soul, and outside the solar system in body.”
Expanding outwards from just the ‘Global’ part of Global Communication, GCOM focuses on the ‘Galactic’. Middleton said the project was “a decade in the making”, and was “inspired by themes surrounding Anthropocene humankind’s impact on the climate, conscious AI, acceleration for interplanetary travel to habitable exoplanets, (and) the hunt for Earth 2.0”, adding that “Superhabitable Exoplanets’ environmental conditions could be even better than ours.”
The album reflects Middleton’s desire to move outwards from Global Communication’s live set; from basic dancefloor-ready music, to sound art informed by science.
Middleton continued, “I began exploring alien sonic textures and sound design in 2011, avoiding as many of the perennial cliches as possible such as known drum machines and synths. Three of the tracks only use a flute as the sound source, nothing else.”
Previously, Middleton’s interest in sleep science led him into helping people with sleep problems using brainwave entrainment. He is currently enrolled on a Neuroscience and Psychology Masters program at Goldsmiths College to research in supporting human problems like anxiety, stress, sleep disruption and human performance using sound.
Middleton’s colleague Dr. Lucy Rhoades worked on the original Global Communication manifesto in 1994, and has now authored a short story narrating the ‘E2-XO’ album journey from the perspective of conscious AI.
Paul Nicholson (GC’s regular design partner, who also created the Aphex Twin logo) worked on the ‘E2-XO’ artwork and its packaging.
Follow the journey of the M-RAI exoplanet probe cubes and the LONO Ark Starship filled with sleeping human settlers to Teegarden B, currently the closest exoplanet with the highest ESI (Earth Similarity Index). What might these journeys sound like? How would these worlds feel? What alien lifeforms and scenarios might be encountered?
The album’s tracklist consists entirely of imagined codenames for exoplanets. Additionally, one of the tracks – ‘XO (Wolf 1061c)’ – comes with a rare remix by the late producer Qebrus, who passed away in February 2018. Middleton discovered Qebrus’ work in 2015, and in conversation with Aphex Twin, agreed on his ability to sonically articulate the unknown and alien.
The triple vinyl LP will be released on October 29 via !K7. Pre-order the album here: