A minimal wave beat: a super-snappy snare hitting every second count, the sequencer sprinting in sixteenths in the background, sending hypnotic pulses. It wobbles, but there’s air to breathe. Then: a MIDI-generated saxophone. Multiple piano chords, a counterpoint bass note, a female voice doing the “hoo-hoo-hoo” thing. Remote Viewing plays like a meta-soundtrack to an era when sampling (Fairlight CMI) and sequencing cracked open the synapses of music nerds, revealing the near-infinite expanses of the sonic universe.
David Van Tieghem – a largely underappreciated name until now – operated in close proximity to key figures like Brian Eno, Trevor Horn, and the “Mutant Beat” pioneers from Japan such as Yasuaki Shimizu and Ryuichi Sakamoto. Together, they radically expanded the vocabulary of pop music. This first major retrospective of the American composer sheds light on that very era, featuring recordings from 1983 to 1989. And they’re full of surprises: the Koto-inspired Yesterday Island or the title track Even As We Speak build bridges between electronic listening music and what would later be called Clicks & Cuts—years before either of those concepts even had a name.
