Nobody knows who Transpac is.
The project fi rst appeared as an anonymous transmission: a folder sent
through the network, containing music, instructions and a name -
Transpac. No photograph. No biography. Just the request to use the
name and let the music speak.
There have been several transmissions since. Still no interviews, no
con fi rmed identity, no explanation of who - or what - is behind the
name.
Some say Transpac is a person. Others insist it is a machine. A few
believe it is simply a data packet that escaped the network and
somehow learned how to make music.
The name itself o ff ers a possible clue. TRANSPAC was once the name of
a French public data network, launched in 1978 and built around X.25
packet switching - breaking information into packets and moving them
across a network long before the Internet became what it is today.
Perhaps Transpac has been travelling ever since.
Packet Switching EP is the latest intercepted transmission: six packets
of pure machine music, assembled somewhere between circuitry,
communication protocols and whatever exists on the other side of the
network.
Whilst the packets have been received, the sender remains unknown.
Synaptic Cli ff s is particularly pleased to have brought Transpac into its
network - a feat made possible, not least, by its principal operative,
pdqb. Through communication channels inaccessible to ordinary
Earthlings, pdqb was able to locate Transpac with remarkable ease and
secure its transmission for the label.
The artwork, rendered in yellow and black and largely composed of
binary code, echoes the visual language of the early machine age - a
world of geometric systems, electronic signals and human beings
beginning to communicate with machines. Created by the legendary
Infamous Image Division.
Nobody knows who Transpac is.
The project fi rst appeared as an anonymous transmission: a folder sent
through the network, containing music, instructions and a name -
Transpac. No photograph. No biography. Just the request to use the
name and let the music speak.
There have been several transmissions since. Still no interviews, no
con fi rmed identity, no explanation of who - or what - is behind the
name.
Some say Transpac is a person. Others insist it is a machine. A few
believe it is simply a data packet that escaped the network and
somehow learned how to make music.
The name itself o ff ers a possible clue. TRANSPAC was once the name of
a French public data network, launched in 1978 and built around X.25
packet switching - breaking information into packets and moving them
across a network long before the Internet became what it is today.
Perhaps Transpac has been travelling ever since.
Packet Switching EP is the latest intercepted transmission: six packets
of pure machine music, assembled somewhere between circuitry,
communication protocols and whatever exists on the other side of the
network.
Whilst the packets have been received, the sender remains unknown.
Synaptic Cli ff s is particularly pleased to have brought Transpac into its
network - a feat made possible, not least, by its principal operative,
pdqb. Through communication channels inaccessible to ordinary
Earthlings, pdqb was able to locate Transpac with remarkable ease and
secure its transmission for the label.
The artwork, rendered in yellow and black and largely composed of
binary code, echoes the visual language of the early machine age - a
world of geometric systems, electronic signals and human beings
beginning to communicate with machines. Created by the legendary
Infamous Image Division.
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