| NTS Sessions 1–4 | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Autechre |
| Cover: | File:AutechreNTS1-4.jpg |
| Border: | yes |
| Released: | 26 April 2018 (digital) August 2018 (physical) |
| Genre: | Electronic[1] |
| Length: | 480:00 |
| Label: | Warp WARP364 |
| Producer: | Autechre |
| Prev Title: | elseq 1–5 |
| Prev Year: | 2016 |
| Next Title: | AE LIVE 2016/2018 |
| Next Year: | 2020 |
NTS Sessions 1–4 (also known as NTS Sessions) is the thirteenth studio album by British electronic music duo Autechre, released by Warp on 26 April 2018.[2] [3] The album was announced on 9 April, and consists of original music comprising Autechre's April 2018 residency for NTS Radio, which was announced the week before, on 3 April 2018.[4] The album was subsequently released in both digital and physical formats. Containing exactly eight hours of music, NTS Sessions 1–4 is the longest Autechre release to date. The album was met with critical acclaim.
On 3 April 2018, the duo announced a four-week residency on the online station NTS Radio, the broadcasts for which would occur on the 5th, 12th, 19th and 26th of that month at 4:00 PM GMT +1. It was not made known that the residency would include new material until after the first session was broadcast, leading many to assume that it would be another of the band's extended DJ mixes. A few days after the first session aired, Warp announced that each of the two-hour sessions would be released as a digital download immediately after broadcast, with 12-LP and 8-CD boxed sets of the entire album, as well as 3-LP pressings of each individual session, to be released in July, primarily through Bleep.com's Autechre store.
In an August 2018 interview with Pitchfork, Sean Booth and Rob Brown disclosed that they were initially disinclined to do a residency when approached by NTS, having produced a DJ set for the station in 2016.[5] However, it subsequently occurred to the duo that they had enough material to fill eight hours, and they ultimately conceived of the project as an extended radio show. Like other Autechre releases of the past decade, the music is a product of what they refer to as "the system": "a labyrinthine compendium of software synthesizers, virtual machines, and digital processes."[5] When asked how far back the material goes, Booth explained:
In approaching the project as a radio show, "tracks were put together and edited with that in mind", with "versions and repeats of ideas that have occurred in earlier material." The duo "spent ages sequencing" the album's component parts with an emphasis on "deep mixing ... where you've got things you aren't necessarily aware of at first listen."[5]
NTS Sessions 1–4 has been met with critical acclaim. Mark Smith of Resident Advisor said that, although "NTS Sessions 1-4 will elicit the same critiques as any Autechre album in the last decade... it's their best record in many years", calling the album a "pinnacle, as if the preceding decades of work were acts of research leading to this point." Andrew Nosnitsky of Pitchfork said that the album "adds another level of the British duo's legacy. Though it's created by a computer, it will bring you to another plane of human existence if you let it."
Reviewing the album for AllMusic upon its physical release, Paul Simpson concluded that "By nature, the daunting NTS Sessions is Autechre's most challenging work, but for those who are dedicated, it's also one of their most rewarding."
NTS Sessions 1–4 was ranked the 8th best release of the year in The Wire magazine's annual critics' poll.[6]