Maxime de la Rochefoucauld/Automates Ki, Orchestraki

The Automates Ki, in this incarnation are 40 automatons that play drums, strings, and cymbals. It’s certainly a novel approach to the one-man-band, but the question is: is it worth listening to? The answer is yes: the resulting music, at least as much due to programmer and accompanist Maxime Rioux as to any intrinsic qualities of the automatons, is an engrossing textural odyssey, skirting up against various world music and ambient exploratory sounds without ever feeling firmly entrenched in any specific genre. Percussion-heavy, of course, but with ambient winds and strings and other sounds floating through, it’s a great all-purpose roaming soundtrack. If it has a failing, it’s in a lack of structured necessity: even after half-a-dozen listens, none of these tracks particularly distinguish themselves to me, and certainly there’s never a change I anticipate, a moment I look forward to. But even if it just drifts along, it’s an obscenely pleasant drift, and definitely recommended for lovers of percussive, textured music.