The End of Train Device (ETD) is the small metal box, equipped with a flashing light, now seen on the last car of a train where once there was a caboose. I grew up with a love of railroads, the sound of freight trains echoing in the middle of the Kentucky nights. I watched the last gasps of the old-fashioned caboose as the ETD caught on in the 80s, alongside the personal computer. The ETD represents both the loss of something romantic and the transformation into something new, a flashing box that marks the unimaginable flow behind our world. They trace telemetry, the connective tissue of brake lines that binds a long freight train into a single organism, as they make their way along the tangible circuits of our civilization. They are, in a sense, cyborg conductor and brakeman, but also the mind of the machine. They chirp away on radio frequencies, sending a signal that communicates the status of the moving train.

PETER KIRN is a New York-based musician and visualist, known for running the sites createdigitalmusic.com and createdigitalmotion.com. More at flavors.me/peterkirn

Artwork: Richard Bailey (proem)

Mastering Engineer: Danny Wyatt

Download the album for a high-quality PDF insert with proem's artwork and P.KIRN's photography.

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