Bayes by Byrke Lou

Byrke Lou - Bayes
DU-FRGTWN4 / Detund Ltd 60
Digital + Tape


At the cycle’s final outpost, Lou’s transparent vocals, like signal fires iced in reverb, beacon and decay into impeccably-arranged empty space. “Nothing makes sense,” the narrator duets with artificial intelligence. “The stars are turning, and the fire is burning, I don’t know who I am, and I’m afraid, but it’s alright.” Trained on tabla and voice, the curved mirror of the AI counterpart reflects and refracts the melodic swings and dives like a lipless mouth on a receding reed. A crow caws, tablas roll.


Together, the voice and its resynthesized shadow sync and skim across the rocks and tumbles of algorithmic alterations, sourced from Lou’s private library of soldered synths, light-sensitive sensor systems, and field recordings. Flaring out from emptiness, pulsewheels of untamed particulate cluster and collapse in a call-and-response of rhythmic surge and backscatter.


Sculpting binary into cellular texture, the live coding sessions shape a rugged surface over which the tenuous and tenacious narrator ranges through states of wonder (“home”), longing (“earth”), perseverance (“free”), resolution (“jealousy”), and uncertainty (“nothing”). Action and aftermath resonate with psychological tangibility: bayes bottles the source and processes the spirit: the retrospective deliberation of post-production enhances the spontaneous evocations of raw code and vocal performance.


On side B, we see how the data get mined. Soloists now, two AI tracks rise and set over a hazy horizon of a stretched, spare live coding session. The flipside’s back-end focus fails to demystify bayes. Instead, its spacious atmosphere provides enough breathing room for the mystery to thrive.

-Rick Weaver

Byrke: "Bayes tells stories of a girl in the future, who is partly physical, partly virtual and trying to find her quest.
I wrote and produced this album over the past three years, travelling in between L.A. and Berlin, meeting amazing people and making new friends along the way, most of which are represented in his work in one way or another. [Compare huge credit section].
Most of the production happened in 2019 though, when I was recording all the music and vocals in July 2019 in Berlin."

Physicist and hybrid artist Byrke Lou was born and raised in Berlin.

Her work examines the cultural embedding of natural sciences‘ research and emerging technologies. Her objects, installations, performances and compositions ask questions about scientific methods and the construction and impact of new technologies.

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