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Music

Actress Announces New Album and Shares Eerie Video for Lead Single

"X22RME​" is the first track to be released from 'AZD," the producer's fourth album.
Photo by Mehdi Lacoste

Acclaimed London-based experimentalist Actress announced his new album today AZD—pronounced "azid"—the long-awaited follow up to the 2014 LP Ghettoville. The artist born Darren Cunningham also shared a new single "X22RME" with a music video directed by British filmmaker Dan Emmerson. Featuring the producer clad in an imposing welding helmet ominously wandering empty urban spaces including tunnels, parks, and streets, the clip poses an eerie counterpoint to the track, which offers a hyperreal take on fragmented techno sounds.

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"I did 50 versions of the tune," said Cunningham of "X22RME" in a press release. "Different parts were on tape, CD, different old computers and USB sticks, so it was quite intimidating to revisit and complete. The track was in the end built out of three hours of different passages."

Cunningham also announced a new live show today called "AZD." It "will be a test frame for linking circuits using various forms of language—midi globalized language, lyrical language, Tikal graffiti code and various other synthesizer language—to create one intelligent musical instrument called 'AZD,'" he said. "If successful it will produce the first translucent, non-soluble communication sound pill synergized through impressionistic interpretations of technological equipment. This is the music vitamin of the metropolis."

Last year, Actress didn't formally release any music, but he did appear to share a churning unreleased track "Cosine" via Twitter.

AZD will be released by Ninja Tune on April 14 and is available for pre-order.

AZD tracklist:

1. NIMBUS
2. UNTITLED 7
3. FANTASYNTH
4. BLUE WINDOW
5. CYN
6. X22RME
7. RUNNER
8. FALLING RIZLAS
9. DANCING IN THE SMOKE
10. FAURE IN CHROME
11. THERE'S AN ANGEL IN THE SHOWER
12. VISA

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