Three Acrobats Mixed Jan St. Werner's Squares Will Fall

The forthcoming “Squares Will Fall” has already been a birthday present and a circus performance. Thrill Jockey will release Jan St. Werner's record on 13 November. Its title piece began in 2012 as exactly 30 minutes of electronic music for a friend's thirtieth birthday, according to the label. Later, Werner and Justin Vernon used the material for an improvisation at Vernon's Wisconsin studio. Its most unusual mixing session, though, required three acrobats.

At the 2021 Ural Industrial Biennial, three suspended loudspeakers each carried a separate part of the composition. The acrobats moved them through the circus space. “The performers mix the sound elements in real time by moving the speakers,” Werner explained on his website. The audience could move too, and make recordings for personal use. Where a listener stood helped determine the balance that reached their ears.

Werner completed the first stereo mix in 2026, with his Mouse on Mars partner Andi Toma joining the final sessions. That makes the release a new listening arrangement, not simply a document of the circus event: a fixed two-channel mix replaces the visitor's freedom to walk between three sources.

The official video linked here preserves the earlier, 2021 performance; it is not an excerpt from the forthcoming stereo release. Watch the acrobats as well as listening. Their movements are doing a job usually hidden behind a mixing desk.