In Library Copy Do Not Remove, Discovery Zone's

JJ Weihl presents a digital enchantment of reality,

braiding together the material and non-material to

reveal that they are, in fact, two aspects of one and the

same thing. In Weihl's world, Nature and technology

are not enemies, but instead create each other in an

infinite dance of meaning and reflection.

Originally created in spatial sound for the Zeiss-

Groß Planetarium in Berlin, Library Copy Do Not

Remove is a creation mythology for the simulated

universe. However, this is not some dry, Bostromian,

masculine fantasy of a digital reality devoid of nature's

mysteries. Instead, Weihl insists that the listener allow

space for the awesome reality of the natural world

within the framework of a simulation. If our world is

simulated, then the simulation has to be capable of

creating the beauty and splendor of Nature. In this way,

Weihl engages an ambient alchemy, calling for a grand

reconciliation of Nature and the technological, while

asking us to consider how and where the experience

of transcendent human consciousness might exist

between them.

Written while Weihl was simultaneously completing

her sophomore album Quantum Web, the songs on

Library Copy Do Not Remove reflect an expansive,

inspirational state of both excitement and anxiety at the

task of composing music for such a unique space. The

songs themselves were shaped through Ambisonics,

a specific format of spatial audio that is directional

instead of being channel-based (like stereo), and were

transmitted through a mosaic of 49 speakers. Because

it was written for live performance, Library Copy Do

Not Remove was never conceived as an album per se,

but instead as a three-dimensional event. In this way

the sonic staging mirrored how we perceive sound in

our everyday lives: surrounding us from all directions.

For this album release, Weihl mixed all of the songs

again from the ground up with long time producer E/T,

reimagining and reworking the constellation of tracks

for a stereo experience.

Inspired by the work of James Gleick, LD Deutsch,

Johannes Kepler and Jorges Luis Borges, Library

Copy Do Not Remove explores the creative tension

between reality and perception, information and

mythology, harmony and disorder. Throughout the

album, Weihl asks how we as humans come to

understand the universe around us and the underlying

code which animates it. What emerges is a sonic

mythos that tells of spiraling digital universes, each

nested within each other, in which every participatory

agent is both a part, and the whole, of reality, at once.

In this way, Library Copy Do Not Remove is a cyber-

expression of perennial wisdom: instead of "as above,

so below," Weihl might suggest, "as with input, so

with output."