First Law: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
To get to the ten songs on Sci-Fi Revisited, you need to solve a puzzle on a computer screen. Jumping through this hoop is a throw-back to the primitive games that people used to make with Macromedia Flash. As well as adding a nostalgic touch, it is a reminder of how mich artists thought about the overall experience when creating albums in days gone past. With streaming, music is just part of a giant data pool, and even cover art has been replaced by a thumbnail.
Jean-Marc Lederman isn’t happy just throwing his creations into the pond with all of the other data. Whether making lenticular images or books, he takes care to link his music with other objects. He is also keen to involve many of his collaborators and contacts – to share the vision and broaden the scope of his projects. As The Jean-Marc Lederman Experience, an ever-shifting band of artists add their parts to the Belgian composer’s instrumentation with something close to a free hand.
Second Law: A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
On this outing, we find readings of science fiction literature, voiced by Emileigh Rohn (Chiasm), Tom Shear (Assemblage 23), Christina Z, Mari Kattman, Mira Shear, Ken Magerman (Amaranth), Julianne Regan, Daz Sharp, Jim Marcus (Die Wurzau), Sapphira Vee (Die Wurzau), and Lederman (Kid Montana, The Weathermen) himself.
It’s a Who’s Who (which always should have been Who’s Whom, surely?) of one corner of alternative music. The material comes from various sources, but it is unified by its retro take on the future. The result is a public radio show for goths and cybers.
Third Law: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Buyers on Bandcamp can get their hands on an exclusive comic book made to accompany the album. Together with the video game and high-resolution downloads, it represents three eras of science fiction.
<The real joy of Sci-Fi Revisited lies in the musical fragments distributed by Lederman to his cohort. He has made techno and EBM, but Our Man in Brussels also has a good line in cinematic, expressive ambience. Hans Zimmer hasn’t snatched him up yet, but there is still time.