{"id":2486,"date":"2020-03-14T03:14:54","date_gmt":"2020-03-14T11:14:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/antoine.wojdyla.fr\/blog\/?p=2486"},"modified":"2020-03-14T12:06:20","modified_gmt":"2020-03-14T20:06:20","slug":"i-trawl-the-terahertz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/antoine.wojdyla.fr\/blog\/2020\/03\/14\/i-trawl-the-terahertz\/","title":{"rendered":"I trawl the terahertz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last year I&#8217;ve discovered Paddy McAloon&#8217;s re-edition of &#8220;I Trawl the Megahertz&#8221; (published as Prefab Sprout) in happenstance. I was listening to Spotify, and this beautiful instrumental piece showed up, with hesitating strings and a cold voice, which was not too dissimilar to Woodkid&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/track\/04yjowfuQKn9MjYeKJizFt\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/track\/04yjowfuQKn9MjYeKJizFt', 'On Then and Now']);\" >On Then and Now<\/a>\u00a0which I had been drawn to earlier in the season.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/J-P7yVqJ9Wk\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>This gradually became my favorite album of the year (other great songs are in there, such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=cenwtYd7HFo\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=cenwtYd7HFo', 'I&#8217;m 49']);\" >I&#8217;m 49<\/a>.) Now that the virus is crawling and the internet functions at the Terahertz speeds, we&#8217;ve gone full circle.<\/p><!--more--><\/p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2490\" style=\"width: 428px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/antoine.wojdyla.fr\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/i_trawl_lp.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2490\" class=\"wp-image-2490\" src=\"http:\/\/antoine.wojdyla.fr\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/i_trawl_lp-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"418\" height=\"418\" srcset=\"http:\/\/antoine.wojdyla.fr\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/i_trawl_lp-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/antoine.wojdyla.fr\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/i_trawl_lp-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/antoine.wojdyla.fr\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/i_trawl_lp-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/antoine.wojdyla.fr\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/i_trawl_lp-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 418px) 100vw, 418px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-2490\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">LP arts of &#8220;I trawl the megahertz&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_2491\" style=\"width: 434px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/antoine.wojdyla.fr\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/lbnl_loves_light.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2491\" class=\"wp-image-2491\" src=\"http:\/\/antoine.wojdyla.fr\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/lbnl_loves_light-1024x680.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"424\" height=\"282\" srcset=\"http:\/\/antoine.wojdyla.fr\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/lbnl_loves_light-1024x680.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/antoine.wojdyla.fr\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/lbnl_loves_light-300x199.jpg 300w, http:\/\/antoine.wojdyla.fr\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/lbnl_loves_light-768x510.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 424px) 100vw, 424px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-2491\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lights at night in Berkeley, with trails following the beats of my heart<\/p>\n<\/div><p>After listening to it a few times, I started listening closely to the lyrics, and I found them very poetic. The matched my mood so exactly that I thought this was not possible, and because the name Prefab Sprout was unknown to me and felt so odd, <strong>I started fantasizing about how an AI-enabled music algorithm (like <a href=\"https:\/\/magenta.tensorflow.org\/\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'https:\/\/magenta.tensorflow.org\/', 'Project Magenta']);\" >Project Magenta<\/a>) could create music knowing my profile, feed it to Spotify, add art to fit my inclinations and create a fake <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/I_Trawl_the_Megahertz\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/I_Trawl_the_Megahertz', 'story on Wikipedia']);\" >story on Wikipedia<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p><a href=\"http:\/\/antoine.wojdyla.fr\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/i_trawl_note.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2489 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/antoine.wojdyla.fr\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/i_trawl_note-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"580\" height=\"326\" srcset=\"http:\/\/antoine.wojdyla.fr\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/i_trawl_note-1024x576.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/antoine.wojdyla.fr\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/i_trawl_note-300x169.jpg 300w, http:\/\/antoine.wojdyla.fr\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/i_trawl_note-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px\" \/><\/a>But no, Prefab Sprout is a reputable band from UK, and the story behind the album is true: Paddy McAloon had been through an eye surgery and started listening to conversation on the shortwave radio. People talking to the void, not because they&#8217;re alone, but because there&#8217;s no one to listen to them:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Only by an extreme act of will can I avoid<br \/>\nBecoming a character in a country song:<br \/>\n&#8216;Lord, y&#8217;gave me nothin&#8217;, then y&#8217;took it all away.&#8217;<br \/>\nThese are the sorrowful mysteries,<br \/>\nAnd I have to pay attention.<br \/>\nIn a chamber of my heart sits an accountant.<br \/>\nHe is frowning and waving red paper at me.<br \/>\nI go to the window for air.<br \/>\nI catch the scent of apples,<br \/>\nI hunger for a taste,<br \/>\nBut I can&#8217;t see the orchard for the rain.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last year I&#8217;ve discovered Paddy McAloon&#8217;s re-edition of &#8220;I Trawl the Megahertz&#8221; (published as Prefab Sprout) in happenstance. I was listening to Spotify, and this beautiful instrumental piece showed up, with hesitating strings and a cold voice, which was not too dissimilar to Woodkid&#8217;s On Then and Now\u00a0which I had been drawn to earlier in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11,6,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art-science","category-english","category-mood","category-noble-drawings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/antoine.wojdyla.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/antoine.wojdyla.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/antoine.wojdyla.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/antoine.wojdyla.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/antoine.wojdyla.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2486"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/antoine.wojdyla.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2493,"href":"http:\/\/antoine.wojdyla.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2486\/revisions\/2493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/antoine.wojdyla.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/antoine.wojdyla.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/antoine.wojdyla.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}