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By Valda Kappelhoff, translation by Roderick Böhlerweg
“Who can say what darkness will come,” one whispered as the first note played. It was two years before the new millennium and percussionist Cameron Scott had reunited with university comrade, programmer and electronics savant Steve Zahler. Scott had spent the previous three years at the Fahrenheit Digital Research Station surveying nuance of sound, when Zahler, founder of Void Laboratories, acquired FDRS to form Void-Fahrenheit Studios, GmbH. Comrades now colleagues, the two soon began crafting resonances and rhythmic melodies in sessions that ran late into the night. The tones that drifted through the darkened studio halls were grave and desolate, laden with thoughtful context and deserving of further development. “All is electric in pain and delight,” they both agreed—and in those hours between the gloamings, a band was born.
Beyond their infatuation with avant-garde music, the two shared a passion for science, art and philosophy. They took their name from the 1920’s Weimar transhuman experiment Scribemaschinen, a controversial program designed to hasten the arrival of the post-human era. The name, translated to Scribe Machine in English, would serve as moniker and mission as the duo fashioned their sound. Their concept was both simple and vainglorious; that they would write the soundtrack for the dying of man. Their tools were digital samplers, used to turn the din of entropy that surrounds us into rhythm and timbre. And their methods were unconventional, putting aside their years of classical training (Scott in jazz percussion and Zahler in traditional composition and keys) to forge a new path not previously traveled in music.
Their mode took form as a mixture of trance-inducing electronica, down-tempo and darkwave styles intermeshed with haunting melodies and industrially dark noisescapes; reverberating influences from Aphex Twin to Xymox. Within a year, the band had signed with Jay Barbieri’s (Polygram/EMI) independent label, J-Bird Records and in January of the new millennium they released their first album, Isolation Loop, to strong reviews. "If you like your beats hard and your machines to twist through hyperspace, Isolation Loop is for you,” wrote the UK’s Lexicon Magazine. The album was quickly followed by the limited-edition EP, Vanish With Me, that contained remixes and alternate versions from the Isolation Loop sessions.
In the winter of 2001 Scribe Machine parted ways with J-bird over distribution concerns and signed with Plan B Records, owned by the synthpop act Red Flag. One year later, Scribe Machine's sophomore album Replicant was launched to U.S. audiences with a national promotional campaign with Tower Records. International distribution followed quickly with Metropolis Records online distribution and iTunes. Unique amongst the band’s work was the track Fragile, featuring the ethereal voice of American vocalist Courtney Fallon Papastathis. In April of 2003, Plan B Records released a 60-minute maxi-single of Fragile that featured production and mixing from more than a dozen internationally known musicians including Iris keyboardist/programmer Andrew Sega and New York synth legends Brand New Idol. That year, the radio edit of Fragile found its way to the top ten charts on many university radio stations around the U.S. and the NegativePh Mix saw heavy club play in Asian and Northern-European dance halls.
In the four years that followed, Scribe Machine shifted their focus to commercial projects, creating backing tracks for numerous MTV productions, producing and remixing other artists, and scoring two independent films. In late 2007, work began on the band’s third studio album, Prototypes for Mass Production, which is anticipated for a winter 2009 release.
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