How one 1998 album pushed Sony’s MiniDisc format to its technical and conceptual extremes.
“No human listener could ever meaningfully reach the edges of what this record contains. You don’t finish MiniDisc — you visit it.”
EI3LH – September 12, 2026
Rob Brown and Sean Booth are Autechre. An electronic music duo formed in 1987, darlings of Warp Records in the 1990s and a global phenomenon everywhere in between. Past. Present and Future.
I am besotted with Autechre.
Booth and Brown are a duo that have pushed the boundaries of electronic music and fused it with experimentation and persistent musical rule-breaking.
Autechre and their subsequent spin-off projects have perhaps been viewed from the outside as difficult to understand, or maybe difficult to appreciate – such is their penchant for the abstract, the mathematical and the strange.
It wasn’t always this way, with seemingly more accessible Autechre fare like the wonderfully mellow Lowride from their 1993 album Incunabula.
The ‘accessible years’ continued with perhaps their most immediately beautiful album, 1994’s Amber. Changes to style, texture and complexity – in my opinion – began to emerge around 1995 with the more industrial-sounding Tri Repetae, Cichlisuite (1997) and Chiastic Slide, released in 1997, which began to blossom the simmering buds of the Autechre we know in 2026.
1998 would see the release of LP5 which, I think, is the duo’s transitional point and perhaps a foundation layer to albums such as Draft 7.30 (2003) and the more musical Quaristice (2007).
I do feel though that there are enough moments in the duo’s post-2000 output that are possibly not as intense and complex as the material on LP5. Booth and Brown still push the boundaries with their unique signature sound which has rightfully earned them critical plaudits and armies of fans across the globe.
In 1998, Gescom released an album exclusively on Sony’s MiniDisc format, with Autechre’s Sean Booth and Rob Brown working alongside Russell Haswell. What they ended up making was a 45-piece electronic composition divided across 88 separately addressable tracks that would push Sony’s MiniDisc format to its technical and conceptual limits, creating an album that leveraged precisely what made MiniDisc an interesting format to begin with, exploited it and in the process opened the door to one of the most brain-bursting, neuron-melting and frankly mind-boggling mathematics rabbit holes I’ve ever encountered.
All from a 45-piece composition spread across 88 independently addressable track segments, with a runtime of just 67 minutes and 6 seconds.
“By having the tracks ‘shuffle-able’, we kind of remove peoples’ awareness that there was a definite arrangement.”
Sean Booth, Autechre / Gescom – Reverb Magazine, January 24, 2008.
For the eagle-eyed viewers, the duo were already showing glimpses of their mathematical (or artsymath for want of a better word?) side, notably with their album artwork.
Autechre’s album art has always been a mix of minimal and abstract, yet the band revealed their interest in fractals with their 1999 EP ep7.
In a 1999 interview with Soundproof magazine, Rob Brown said “We’re a bit into fractals…not really. You could probably tell from the EP7 artwork” before expressing the design was made in Freehand software.
When pressed if the illustration had a mathematical basis, the pair discussed spiral settings to define equal angles, rule sets and ranges. A bit above my understanding, I just enjoy pretty fractals, but it makes for cool reading all the same!
Gescom.
By 1997, with Autechre busy firing on all cylinders and wowing thinkers and listeners worldwide, work was underway on what would become the MiniDisc project. Gescom – often said to stand for ‘Global Enterprise Communication System’, although the exact origin of the name is murky.
Formed in 1994, Gescom was not strictly a dedicated Autechre side-project; it was described by Sean Booth as an ‘umbrella project’ and involved roughly a couple of dozen people over its history (the exact roster is unknown). For the MiniDisc album Gescom was comprised of Sean Booth, Rob Brown and Russell Haswell.
The band had stated that they had been “pissing around with MiniDisc for ages” (source: Lowculture Soundproof interview circa 1999) and were keen to make a MiniDisc format album, similar to ones they had already been making for their personal collections.
Information is scant, but my understanding is that the material that comprised the MiniDisc album composition was created from years of accumulated material. The group took all of this material forward to the Gescom MiniDisc album project and began work on what would eventually become (in my very humble opinion at least) one of, if not the definitive album released on the MiniDisc format.
Ever.
Probably.
When Sony brought the MiniDisc format to market, it became renowned for a plethora of reasons, some technical, some marketing spiel. Of particular interest to Gescom was the format’s rapid random access and ability to move between independently addressable tracks.
The technical qualities of the format would form part of the basis for the Gescom MiniDisc album. Namely a 45-track composition, divided into 88 separately addressable track segments (or track IDs, aka, the physical/programmed listening surface – 88 independently addressable pieces of audio) for a run time of 01:07:06:23.
The album was explicitly designed around the characteristics of the MiniDisc format, and when launched in July 1998 it would be a MiniDisc-only release (the album would be issued on Compact Disc several years later).
The album took a further novel twist by taking advantage of the MiniDisc ‘shuffle’ playback feature, with the band stating that aside from playing the album in track order from start to finish, fans were actively encouraged to listen to the album in shuffle mode to create a new seamless album with each play through.
Thus this proposition gave birth to an 88-track album that could be played back in its entirety at random, and potentially provide a different album experience with each playback.
The door to some extraordinary and brain-melting probability mathematics had just been flung wide open and a rabbit hole as deep and dark as all of space and time was just begging to be ventured down.
Grab a MiniDisc player, pray it works, pop in your Gescom disc and hold on to your hats!
Fields Medal-Grade Mathematics.
Once you pry open the door of probability that the MiniDisc album so temptingly leaves ajar to the curious listener, the mathematics that begins to reveal itself is truly staggering.
Let us begin with probably (excuse pun) the top question. This one should melt the head off of Will Hunting. Even the pony tail guy at the bar that quotes Gordon Wood wouldn’t have a clue!
We’ll round ever so slightly and state that one complete listen to MiniDisc takes 67 minutes. So how long would it take to hear every possible ordering of the 88 track IDs?
The answer is approximately:
A number so enormous that saying “a very long time” doesn’t really do it justice. Let us put it into a bit of perspective.
The Universe is approximately:
So how many times would the age of the universe fit into hearing every possible shuffle playthrough of MiniDisc? We would (according to GPT Terra because I have the IQ of a bubble in an Aero bar) use the following formula:
Which gives us a figure of approximately:
…or, 1.71 times 10 to the power of 120 times the current age of the Universe.
It is important to note that this calculation is the number of possible orderings of the 88 track IDs, not necessarily the number of perceptually unique musical experiences. Nor does it mean a particular MiniDisc player’s shuffle algorithm will generate every possible ordering with equal probability.
Oh, and just to put more perspective on these absurd numbers, we can take it a step further. What if you started listening to MiniDisc today Sunday September 13th 2026 with the goal of listening to every possible shuffle combination? When would you potentially finish?
For 88 distinct tracks the possible complete orders are calculated thus:
So at 67:06 per complete playthrough, hearing every single complete order continuously would take:
…or about:
Thus if you were to start listening to Gescom MiniDisc at the time this blog post was published in 2026 AD, your theoretical finish date would be approximately:
…from now. The Universe is approximately 13.8 billion years old, so a complete MiniDisc listening session would last approximately 1.7 × 10¹²⁰ times the current age of the Universe. Or put another way:
You would need to live through the entire history of the Universe about 1.7 × 10¹²⁰ times in succession to hear every possible ordering of MiniDisc.
EI3LH – September 13th, 2026
If you want that written as a simplified start/finish date to scribble into your Filofax then jot down the following:
START DATE:
September 2026 AD
FINISH DATE:
Note that this approximate finish date is presented under the assumption that you, the listener, are adhering to strict conditions that once you press play in 2026 AD, you never sleep, eat, stop or miss a shuffle and that every possible permutation is heard exactly once.
Best you hit shuffle and get listening then!
Here Comes A New Challenger!
Before writing this blog post I was all set to listen to my treasured Gescom first pressing MiniDisc on my Sharp MD-MT170 when my anticipated listening experience came to a juddering halt.
I had to replace my tired Sharp portable recorder as it developed a TOC READ error. In fairness I’ve owned the little player for around 15 years and it has never missed a beat. TOC READ errors are common as the laser sledge mechanism has a microscopic gear that loses grip as the plastic becomes brittle and loose over time. It is a fiddly repair and a job I have parked to attempt on a rainy day in the future.
Luckily I found a nice Sony MZ-R500 for sale on eBay on the same day as my Sharp player failed. It is in transit at the moment, but I look forward to shuffling my beloved Gescom MiniDisc on it soon!
There is a positive element to being coaxed by failing vintage technology into purchasing more failing vintage technology though. For portable power, my (currently broken) Sharp player utilises what are known as ‘chewing gum stick’ batteries. My newly-acquired Sony MZ-R500 was manufactured when portable MiniDisc players still used AA batteries for their power source. Both have DC inputs but the focus differentiator here is portability and on-the-go power.
This piqued my curiosity. I wondered how many AA batteries it would take to power my MiniDisc player in order to reach my goal?
Let’s find out!
Erased from Existence.
Taking a look at the Sony MZ-R500 data suggests that the portable MiniDisc player/recorder uses one LR6 (AA) alkaline battery, providing approximately 36 hours of playback in Normal/SP mode, 42 hours in LP2 or 48 hours in LP4.
Note this is under EIAJ conditions and that battery life can and likely will vary depending upon conditions and battery type.
Taking the established 4,026 seconds per complete playthrough gives the following calculations
| MZ-R500 | Battery Life | AAs Required |
| Normal/SP | 36 h | 5.762 x 10¹³² |
| LP2 | 42 h | 4.939 x 10¹³² |
| LP4 | 48 h | 4.321 x 10¹³² |
In written form, to complete our goal of listening to every combination of Gescom’s MiniDisc would consume approximately 5.76 × 10¹³² AA batteries. This broke my Wolfram calculation prompt in GPT Terra when it attempted to generate the actual decimal number!
As a scientific calculation this is written as:
Given that we’re in it for the long haul, I pondered the question are there enough AA batteries in existence on Planet Earth to facilitate this goal?
Unsurprisingly, no there is not.
To complete our mission of listening to every possible Gescom MiniDisc combination, non-stop, using a Sony MZ-R500 powered solely by a single AA alkaline battery would require:
…or in normal-human language, if you imagine the volume of the entire planet Earth is turned into piles of AA batteries, you’d get approximately:
…but we need:
Thus, one entire planet Earth volume converted into AA alkaline batteries is insufficient. We would require approximately 10¹⁰⁶ more planet Earths made entirely of AA batteries in order to potentially complete our goal. On the proviso that conditions are perfectly met both for powering the MiniDisc player, that it never develops a fault and that playing every combination in one session is met.
In non-mathematical notation? We would require 2 followed by 106 zeros planet Earths, converted completely into AA batteries, to power the Sony MZ-R500 through every possible 88 track ordering.
Putting that into further context, an estimated 4 billion AA alkaline batteries are produced worldwide per year (according to a 2020 life-cycle study). At that rate it would require 1.4 × 10¹²³ years of production to manufacture enough batteries to meet our goal. That is assuming each battery is manufactured perfectly and performs perfectly too.
What does this look like for quantities versus astronomical sizing? Our shopping list for AA alkaline batteries is thus:
- Planet Earth (converted into AA alkaline batteries) – Insufficient
- The Solar System – Insufficient
- The observable Universe – Insufficient
You can safely assume at this stage we’re going to have some serious logistics and supply chain problems!
Cheaters (In This Instance) Prosper. (Sort of).
We’ve established that listening to every possible combination of Gescom MiniDisc, in its entirety and non-stop, is going to take a very long time to complete.
But what if…?
What if we cheated? What if we simply calculated all of the possible permutations and simply generated an m3u playlist file? That would work right?
Yes it would but with caveats (and more mathematics). You would also be effectively cheating your way to the finish line as the album is meant to be listened to on a MiniDisc player in shuffle mode. We’re taking those constraints away, calculating each permutation and generating a playlist to automate our goal.
You would be forgiven for thinking you cheated the system, and in a way you have. However, using the aforementioned 67:06/4,026 second runtime calculation you would still require 1.7 × 10¹²⁰ times the current age of the Universe in listening time to reach your cheat mode goal!
This means you would need a device (computer, DAP, holographic sentient neuromodule – OK I made that up for kicks!) switched on and running continuously until approximately the year:
There is however, one small additional problem, brought in primarily by the original 88 piece being designed around seamless MiniDisc shuffle. Gescom’s MiniDisc album was reissued on Compact Disc and digital formats several years later.
Recreating this is possible on a computer and several physical Compact Disc players have had gapless playback capability for decades. However, creating one m3u playlist file isn’t exactly feasible. We’d be better off utilising a gapless media player that changes permutations on the fly.
This is a bit beyond my knowledge level (I’m no developer or mathematician) so I turned to AI to build a script for me that would generate only the current 88-track m3u. The playlist is then played in its entirety. Upon completion it then advances to the next permutation.
But what if there is a power cut or the device you are using crashes? The script has a built-in checkpoint system so you can restart it at any point you choose rather than beginning the process again.
If you would like to start your Gescom MiniDisc listening journey, I have uploaded the script I called Gescom Runner to my GitHub repository. It goes without saying that you will require a legally purchased copy of the album (support the artist!).
If you would like to give my program a try, you can download it from my GitHub repository. NOTE: I am still working on the readme.
Probability.
We’ve looked at the absurd numbers when considering the permutations and time required to listen to MiniDisc in its entirety and in one sitting, as well as the amount of AA batteries it would require to power our mission of audio greatness.
Still, Gescom’s magnum opus has more mind-boggling mathematical titbits to give!
We have only considered the data under perfect listening conditions, but what is the probability of those conditions being met, or, probability in relation to general MiniDisc listening?
Here’s a couple of interesting pieces of data I dug out from some Wolfram calculations:
- There are 88! possible complete playbacks.
The album has 88 distinct track IDs. For the first position there are 88 choices, then 87, then 86 and so on.
88! – 185, 482, 642, 257, 398, …, 000
or
1.8548264225739844 × 10¹³⁴
Roughly 1.85 x 10¹³⁴ different ways to hear the entire album. - Identifying one of the 88! possible complete playbacks requires approximately 446.03 bits of information.
To uniquely specify which one of the 88! playbacks you heard requires:
log2(88!) approx 446.03 bits
So a fixed-length binary identifier would require 447 bits. - Two random listens expect about one track in the same position.
Each particular track has a 1/88 chance of occupying the same position in both listens or 88 x 1/88 = 1. The average is exactly one positional match.
The number may vary – sometimes zero, sometimes one, sometimes two or more. - Collecting every possible complete 88-track shuffle is effectively impossible.
If N = 88! possible complete shuffles, then using a coupon-collector estimate for hearing ever one at least once gives approximately 5.75 x 10¹³⁶ complete listens! Note this is an expected value under independent, uniformly distributed random permutations.
The probability trivia just goes on and on. Some of the numbers I was asking ChatGPT Terra to calculate – using an additional Wolfram skill, caused the prompt reply to break and/or simply time out.
Suffice to say, Gescom really did open the doors to mathematical madness with their MiniDisc album and the shuffle novelty!
Beautiful (Gescom) MiniDisc.
Given the journey we’ve been on, venturing down the rabbit holes of electronic music history, mathematics, space and time, I thought this might be appropriate subject fodder to determine what AI believes are visual representations of the Gescom MiniDisc album, and I don’t think it disappoints!
The prompt I used was fairly simple. A black and white abstract image with emphasis on permutations, random order and fractals.
I noticed in a couple of the generated images some nods to M.C. Escher. You may spot references to other artists or compositions – and I would love to hear about them in the comments, or perhaps consider sending me an email from the Contact page!
“Intelligence loves patterns and balks at randomness.”
Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach (Basic Books 1979, p.175)
Journey’s End.
Thinking about the album concept a bit more leads me to think that Sean Booth, Rob Brown and Russell Haswell knew exactly what they were doing – in terms of the mathematical lunacy that the album had the potential to generate.
It is all way beyond my comprehension, but employing GPT and utilising Wolfram for calculations gave me both entertainment as well as some incredible insights into a 1998 music album that I may not have otherwise ever considered.
Wrapping up this little exploratory article, I wanted to make one more check against two texts on my book shelf at home. Namely Gödel, Escher, Bach and The Mind’s I.
I wanted to see if I could find anything in either text that might align with some of my findings on Gescom’s MiniDisc album. I was not disappointed!
Here are some choice quotes from both texts (with citations) that I found fascinating. For transparency, I ran both texts into an LLM as, given the sheer size of the texts, I’d be here a month of Sundays pulling out juicy quotes! Side note, perhaps read these with an open mind and in a calm, peaceful location, lest your brain be turned to mush with all the deep thought!
- “Intelligence loves patterns and balks at randomness.” – Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach (Basic Books 1979, p.175).
This passage points toward our minds preferring patterned (meaningful) inputs to purely random ones. For the MiniDisc album, it could be thought of as perhaps friction between algorithmic shuffle (random order of tracks) and the musical or formal structure within the tracks.
Gescom’s MiniDisc was designed to be listened to in shuffle mode, yet the music within is ordered by track list. - “Wherever we are, what we hear is mostly noise… When we listen to it, we find it fascinating… We want to capture and control these sounds, to use them not as sound effects but as musical instruments.” – John Cage, “The Future of Music: Credo” (1937).
This passage considers that our entire acoustic environment (or, the “field of sound”) is open to music. I think this is an interesting take when considering both outputs of Gescom and Autechre. - Searle – Syntax vs. Semantics: In “Minds, Brains, and Programs” (1980).
John Searle argues that formal computation alone can’t produce real understanding: “Syntax by itself is neither constitutive of nor sufficient for semantics.”. This could suggest running a shuffle algorithm (in this case a “syntax”) would never yield genuine “understanding” or subjective experience (“semantics”) of music.
Essentially implying that MiniDisc’s randomised format is merely playing with forms and cannot “compose” in a conscious way.
I hope you have enjoyed this exploration into the absurd rabbit holes generated by what, on the face of it, is just a retail MiniDisc from 1998.
No human listener could ever meaningfully reach the edges of what this record contains. You don’t finish MiniDisc — you visit it. Scratch the surface though and, as I hope this little blog post has shown, this fanciful MiniDisc project reveals some incredibly deep layers of complexity along with mind-boggling mathematics.
Oh, and it’s a bloomin’ good listen to boot!
72.
AI and calculation disclosure: I used GPT (Terra) and Wolfram to help with the maths and check the calculations in this article. I’ve also fact-checked the historical and technical information separately, but as ever, the final responsibility for what appears here rests with me.
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