Machines cannot create coincidence – they need the unpredictability of humans to do so. This domination-bondage dichotomy leads the Janus-faced machine-trainer team E&A Rüeger to the point of absurdity: although they create their melodic, melancholic electro (unsurprisingly) with the help of all sorts of electronics, they neither leave anything to coincidence nor become slaves of the machine, despite the improvisational claim. All that remains to be discovered is whether our wills will be bent by the compulsory compositions and their subordinate machinery.
Text: Thomas Jenny