This Binary Universe

This Binary Universe is the fifth studio album by composer and electronica artist BT, and was released on August 29, 2006. The album was a significant about-face for Transeau, largely abandoning the progressive trance music he was known for, in favor of ambient soundscapes, live orchestration and glitch music. It is the first BT album not to be released on vinyl, nor feature any singles (though an edit of "1.618" was featured on a compilation). The album was also composed specifically for DTS 5.1 surround sound. A film version of the album received a limited theatrical run, usually accompanied by appearances by Transeau himself. The album is dedicated to Transeau's daughter, Kaia. The album's artwork makes nods to binary by spelling BT's name in morse code on the cover, as well as using additional morse code on the DVD menus.
Prior to This Binary Universe, BT was at the forefront of the trance scene, creating and producing a wealth of popular singles for himself and others, including "Pop" for pop group *NSYNC. BT's most successful album, Emotional Technology saw the beginning of a more introspective and mature sound, which carried over to the soundtracks Transeau was producing at the time, including those for the films Stealth and Monster; these film scores featured minimal beats, lush orchestration and significant use of piano and acoustic guitar. Spurred by these newfound sonic boundaries and the birth of his daughter Kaia, Transeau created an entirely downtempo album of original works, mainly as lullabies for his daughter. Kaia also sat in Transeau's lap throughout most of the production on the album, and can indeed be seen in several studios with Transeau in the included video for "Good Morning Kaia".
With This Binary Universe, Transeau sought to further his compositional skills, seeking out inspiration from indie rock and jazz, using their chord progressions and song structures. The album makes extensive use of circuit bending, which consists of intentionally mis-wiring and short-circuiting keyboards and children's toys to obtain interesting sequences of sounds that are later processed and time-corrected. Many of the beats and rhythms in the album were created by computer programs Brian Transeau developed himself to produce the effects he wanted, including Stutter Edit and Break Tweaker. Stutter Edit has since been released by iZotope, who acquired BT's software company Sonik Architects in 2010.
"All That Makes Us Human Continues" was written entirely in Csound, a music sequencer written in the programming language C, over a period of six months. Several tracks also feature a full 110-piece orchestra; most notably, "The Antikythera Mechanism", which features the orchestra both in original and beat stuttered forms. The only traces left of previous BT albums are the closing minutes of "The Internal Locus", with its pronounced hip hop beat, and album closer "Good Morning Kaia", an ambient rock number filled with ocean sounds that is dedicated to his daughter.