"Avril 14th" is a piano instrumental by the electronic musician Richard D. James, under his pseudonym

Aphex Twin Richard David James (born 18 August 1971), best known as Aphex Twin, is an Irish-born British musician, composer and DJ. He is known for his idiosyncratic work in electronic music, electronic styles such as techno, ambient music, ambient, and jun ...

, released on his 2001 album ''

Drukqs ''Drukqs'' (stylised as ''drukQs'') is the fifth studio album by Aphex Twin, the alias of British electronic musician Richard D. James, released in 2001 on Warp. It is a double album alternating primarily between tracks of meticulously programme ...

''. It was recorded using a

Disklavier Disklavier is a brand of reproducing pianos manufactured by Yamaha Corporation. The first Disklavier was introduced in the United States in 1987. The typical Disklavier is a real acoustic piano outfitted with electronic sensors for recording and ...

, a computer-controlled piano.

Composition

Whereas most of James's music is

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic co ...

, "Avril 14th" is a piano composition. It was recorded using a

, a piano with a mechanism that reads

MIDI MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and re ...

data and plays the

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

without human input. The clicking of the mechanism is audible on the recording. According to ''

Fact A fact is a datum about one or more aspects of a circumstance, which, if accepted as true and proven true, allows a logical conclusion to be reached on a true–false evaluation. Standard reference works are often used to check facts. Scient ...

'' writer Scott Wilson, "The result is something that sounds human but not quite." Several critics likened it to the works of

Erik Satie Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, but was an und ...

. ''Fact'' described it as a "a butterfly-fragile float" of "piano calm".

Reception

Reviewing ''Drukqs'' in 2001, ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

'' wrote that tracks including "'Avril 14th' ... rove dangerously close to the

Windham Hill Windham Hill Records was an independent record label that specialized in instrumental acoustic music. It was founded by guitarist William Ackerman and Anne Robinson (née McGilvray) in 1976 and was popular in the 1980s and 1990s. The label was ...

new age aesthetic of the 80s". It surprised some listeners expecting more electronic work, though ''Fact'' wrote in 2017 that it was "a perfect embodiment of Aphex and the line he constantly treads between the mechanical and the human". As of April 2017, "Avril 14th" had been streamed 124 million times on

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

, 106 million more than Aphex Twin's 1999 single "

Windowlicker "Windowlicker" is a song by British electronic musician Aphex Twin, released on 22 March 1999 as a single by Warp Records. The artwork for the single was created by Chris Cunningham, with additional work by The Designers Republic. Cunningham al ...

Appearances

"Avril 14th" has been used in films including ''

Marie Antoinette Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne (; ; née Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an archduchess of Austria, and was the penultimate child a ...

'' (2006)'','' ''

Four Lions ''Four Lions'' (originally titled ''We Are Four Lions'') is a 2010 British political satire black comedy film directed by Chris Morris (in his directorial debut) and written by Morris, Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong. The film, a jihad satire foll ...

'' (2010)'','' and ''

Her Her is the objective and possessive form of the English-language feminine pronoun She (pronoun), she. Her, HER or H.E.R. may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Music * H.E.R. (born 1997), American singer **H.E.R. (album), ''H.E.R.'' ...

'' (2013).'''' For ''Four Lions'', James rerecorded the track with a minor edit''.'' In 2007, "Avril 14th" was

sampled Sample or samples may refer to: Base meaning * Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of so ...

for a song used in the ''SNL'' digital short "Iran So Far." As SNL owner

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

had not obtained the rights to use the track, the short was quickly removed from

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

. The American rapper

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...

used elements of "Avril 14th" for his 2010 track " Blame Game." According to James, after he was sent an early version of "Blame Game" with a heavily timestretched sample of "Avril 14th," he offered to rerecord the piece at a different

tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (often ...

; West's team replied with "It's not yours, it's ours, and we're not even asking you any more," and tried to avoid paying for its use. The final "Blame Game" used a rerecorded version of "Avril 14th" rather than a sample, and James received credit. On December 4, 2018, Aphex Twin released two alternative versions of "Avril 14th" on his web store, subtitled "reversed music not audio" and "half speed alternative version". A third version, subtitled "doubletempo half speed" was quickly removed from the store the same day.

Other versions

Alarm Will Sound Alarm Will Sound is a 20-member chamber orchestra that focuses on recordings and performances of contemporary classical music. Its performances have been described as "equal parts exuberance, nonchalance, and virtuosity" by the ''Financial Times' ...

included their rendition of "Avril 14th" on the 2005 album '' Acoustica: Alarm Will Sound Performs Aphex Twin''.

Murcof Murcof is the performing and recording name of Mexican electronic musician Fernando Corona. Corona was born in 1970 in Tijuana, Mexico and raised in Ensenada. He was for a time a member of the Tijuana-based Nortec Collective of electronic musicians ...

and

Vanessa Wagner Vanessa Wagner (born 11 June 1973, in Rennes) is a French classical pianist. Biography She studied in the class of Dominique Merlet at the Conservatoire de Paris. At 17, she won the first prize, and went on to study with Jean-François Heisser ...

recorded a version of "Avril 14th" for their 2016 album, ''Statea''. Two additional versions were released on their 2017 EP, ''EP.03'', including a remix by

Loscil Loscil is the electronic/ ambient music project of Scott Morgan from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Morgan launched the project in Vancouver in 1998 while a member of the multimedia collective Multiplex, which curated audiovisual events at a ...

References

{{Aphex Twin 2001 compositions Aphex Twin songs Songs written by Aphex Twin