"Deep Time" is the thirteenth track on Boards of Canada's fifth studio album, Inferno. It was originally released on April 16th, 2026, as the video "Tape 05", without further information.
The title of the track may refer to the concept that shares the same name. The concept of "deep time" first developed in the 18th century is geological time that spans billions of years and provides temporal framework for the Earth's formation and evolution, the development of life, and the slow processes that shape planetary change.
Another reference to Deep Time could be the volume published in 1999 by the astrophysicist and science-fiction writer Gregory Benford. In the volume "Deep Time: How Humanity Communicates Across Millennia"[1], he confronts our growing influence on events hundreds of thousands of years into the future and explores the possible "messages" we may transmit to our distant descendants in the language of the planet itself, from nuclear waste to global warming to the extinction of species.
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Trivia
"Tape 05" was originally speculated to be "Father And Son", due to it being the fifth track on the album and similar in length to the video.[2] This later turned out to be false, as it was confirmed to be "Deep Time" instead after the Inferno listening parties.