There are many great electronic holidays, like those associated with various Roland instruments: 808 Day (for the TR-808 Rhythm Composer, August 8), 404 Day (for the SP-404, April 4), 303 Day (for the TB-303, March 3). My favorite is April 14, for Aphex Twin’s “Avril 14th,” off the 2001 album Drukqs. Many cover versions appear each year, and I’ll share some of my new favorites as the today proceeds. There were, a usual, tons, and I just posted the ones that really struck me. (This entry was last updated the morning of April 15, 2025.)
▰ Here’s flute (Serena Huang) and violin (Michael Shingo) version:
▰ Here’s a harp (Sáoirse Éirinn) and pedal steel (Joel Harkin) duet take:
▰ And it wouldn’t be Avril 14th without a Moog cover, this from a musician who goes by Sequence Mode:
▰ Shane Parish on acoustic guitar, plus birdsong:
▰ An upbeat rendition, entirely on the Elektron Analog Rytm, from my friend RPLKTR (aka Łukasz Langa)
▰ And from БРЎТАЌ on the Sunvox software synth:
▰ And over at Music and Math and Feelings, the Substack of Chris Thompson (percussionist in Alarm Will Sound), there’s a gorgeous exploration of just intonation and oscilloscope visualization: chrispthompson.substack.com (not embeddable).