MUSIC :: text-sound
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Abridgements
:: processing, sequenced percussion, vocals, words
Using two distinctly different texts referring to the lack of time (a romance novel and a medical study on aging), an abridgment occurs by taking a single word from the uppermost corner of each page. This massive abridgement is slimmed even further by assigning each book to a separate left and right channel, enabling them to occur simultaneously. The distinct vocabularies mesh while 600 pages of text is evoked in three minutes. The audio for "Abridgements" is also part of a sound installation including two speakers built into the front and back covers of two books.
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Down Arming
:: software synth, field recordings, processing, sequencing, vocals, words
This work utilizes a poetic text that was processed using an audio plugin that followed the pitch of my voice. The poem was written using Surrealist automatic writing techniques giving it a collaged, dream-like quality. The supporting sounds were processed field recordings and software emulating the Moog Modular synthesizer.
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Music for Two Pierres
:: synthesizer, processing, sequencing, vocals, words
This two-part work uses a complex mapping of compositional variables to a French text by the historical radio engineer Pierre Schaffer. Part One corresponds to a paragraph about Pierre Schaffer and Part Two about Pierre Henry (Schaffer's collaborator). The letters A through G were extracted from the text and used as pitch material. Unused letters became silence. Punctuation was mapped to other compositional variables. All this material was then painstakingly hand-entered note by note into a sequencer. To compliment the pitch material, I used a poetic, translational technique that I commonly use to generate poems. For this, I look at the foreign text and "see into" the unfamiliar language, removing, grafting and reinventing the words into a new English text. This new text/poem was then recorded, digitally processed and integrated with the pitch material. This composition has been documented with a detailed, black and white graphic score.
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Without a Squelch
:: custom-built SuperCollider software instrument, vocals, words
Using an original poetic text as the material foundation, an emotional force is developed through extreme vocal processing. The vocal processing was generated and controlled live by an instrument written in SuperCollider. The instrument includes the facility for three multi-tap delays, brown noise and pitch following.