Between Fragility and Machinery: Laurie Erskine’s patch_t41b Arrives with “dust”

London-based jazz pianist, composer, and producer Laurie Erskine—best known as the former frontman of Club Kuru—returns with a bold new project under the alias patch_t41b, named after a synth file. His debut single, dust, offers a striking fusion of classic songwriting, ambient soundscapes, and free improvisation.

The track draws inspiration from a live performance of Music for William Eggleston’s Stranded in Canton. Erskine describes dust as “a horror love story about the present moment and its lost futures. Overwhelmed by the immensity in parts of the score, I found myself considering the insignificance of humanity in a reality that is constantly expanding.”

What emerges is a haunting, immersive world where human fragility collides with machinery. The piano lines are loose and unresolved, while synths and stretched samples drift like elusive memories. “I tried to be free in the piano improvisations,” Erskine explains, “to create a liminal space with the synth sounds.” Vocals appear like ghostly fragments, flickering between hope and despair, as digital textures weave with classical piano and experimental composition techniques.

The single foreshadows EP_01, due later this year, shaped through a series of speculative live sets across London venues including The Lexington, The Waiting Room, and Theatreship. Drawing on influences as diverse as Jeff Buckley, Beth Gibbons, Terry Riley, Burial, and Fennesz, patch_t41b asks a profound question at the heart of its sound: what does music of the post-human era sound like?