Monthly Archives: October 2005

Organic Forms

[play] Organic Forms
2005

This piece was created on the UPIC system at CCMIX in Alfortville, France. When UPIC was invented, composers using the system would typically create a drawing and then listen to it, making changes as needed. Today, composers tend to listen as they go and the drawing aspect of the system is not emphasized. In this piece, I started with a drawing, inspired by the sorts of shapes that Xenakis used for his compositions. In order to add richness, I used a triangle wave for high sounds, a sawtooth wave for low – mid range sounds and a very short period square wave for very low sounds.

This is my second UPIC compositon and it may be my last.

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Headerless Data No. 2

[play] Headerless Data No. 2
2001

This piece is an example of data bending: a technique where a normal computer file is played as if it were a sound file. The file in this case is an image. Data bending, to me, sounds very similar to some fo the sounds created by Xenakis’ Gendyn algorithms, which shows the similarities of mathematical modelling of different phenomenon, whether it be stochastic or generated by a photograph.

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Aelita Dreams of Mars

[play] Aelita Dreams of Mars
2003

I remember making this piece, but I can’t remember crucial details, such as the original title. Fortunately, I realised the importance of keeping notes on what I was doing:

Recorded april-july 2003
MOTM and minimodular
theremin-ish patch used on aelita sound track (april)
the rest recorded june 30-july 1
copy of first-mix sent to sonic circuits in 2003

program notes: blah blah blah new sounds old sounds.

I can say with certainty that Sonic Circuits did not select it and that I have since improved my note-taking process.

The parts of it that sound like a theremin were generated with my MOTM analog synthesizer. In April of 2003, Christine Denton and I presented some collaborations at Jack Straw in Seattle, Washington. We worked on a soundtrack for the revolution sequence of the silent Soviet film Aelita Queen of Mars and the theremin sounding parts appeared in that soundtrack. Since Leon Theremin was Russian, it seemed appropriate.

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Beep

Beep
2005

This piece moves through undertones of (2^x)/y. It starts with 32/21 and then adds in 32/19 and then 32/17 to create a triad. Then 32/21 drops out and 16/15 enters. As the farthest out note finishes, a closer one comes in so that the piece migrates from 32/21 to 2/2, always playing a triad.

These triads are AM modulated by low frequency pulse waves, starting at 2 Hz. As the piece progresses, faster pulse waves are added to modify new pitches. The pulse introduced are the base pulse times 2, then 3, then 4, then 5 and finally 6. They do not reach the audio range, although they flirt with the idea. The hard cutoffs of the pulse create interference patterns of clicking.

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Bell Tolls

Bell Tolls
2004

This piece plays triads with a sound that resembles wind chimes. It uses a spatialization algorithm so that each “chime” sounds like it is coming from a different location. The pitch of each new set of chimes is based on the pitch of the chimes that precede it. The pitches come from a 21-limit tuning table.

I wrote this piece while going through a divorce. It was intended to sound angry, but instead seems sad.

Des triades des cloches fausses.

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UPIC Impressions of Paris

UPIC Impressions of Paris
2005

This is my first UPIC piece at CCMIX. UPIC (plus bonne version française) is a graphical, glissando-oriented system designed by Xenakis. This piece uses all sine tones and all glissandos are straight lines (no vibrato)

This piece contains extremely low frequencies that may be difficult to hear on some speakers. The sounds are inspired by the surprising, different and wonderful mechanical noises made by the appliances in my kitchen here.

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Savage Beasts

Savage Beasts
2005

To the right of Rush Limbaugh on the prison torture issue, there was Michael Savage, who advocated increasing prison torture and sticking lit dynamite in the anuses of Arab detainees. (Savage May 10-11, 2004)

I found a similarly racist clip from a morning show on NBS called Imus in the Morning, which was showing pictures of Palestinians mourning the death of Yassir Arafat. One of the voice-overs from the Imus show was calling the Palestinians “animals” and was advocating dropping “the bomb” on them and killing everyone. The other co-hosts laughed along with this idea. A week later, they played a clip of someone pretending to be General Patton, speaking about a real event in which an embedded reporter had just filmed footage of a US Marine shooting an injured, unarmed Iraqi insurgent. “Patton” used the term “raghead,” and the phrase “bearded fatwa fairy.” (Imus in the Morning) Imus’ racism was thus clearly linked to his homophobia. During the Arafat sequence,, one of the male voices said something about the “fat pig wife of [Arafat] living in Paris.” Another commentator, noting the emotion of the Palestinians said, “It’s like the worst Woodstock.” Hippies are liberals are feminists are Palestinians are ragheads are gay are women are Iraqis are French. Alien others are thus interchangeable. Every group is standing in for every other group. And while they laughed, one of the commentators kept repeating “animals” and “kill them all.”

As I worked on the piece, I became discouraged. NBC was forced to apologize for the content of the Imus show (“MSNBC apologized for racist commentary on Imus”), but the piece only reminded me of the left’s failure to turn torture into a mainstream issue. I decided that offensive statements about the desirability of torture were not enough to support the piece, as clearly, not enough people would care. Also, “here’s a guy saying something offensive” seemed too weak to carry a piece.

I decided to focus on the laughter. I looped the laughing track and played violent phrases from Imus and Savage on top. Thus the Imus men laugh hysterically at themselves and at Savage. The entertainment value of genocide, violence and torture is thus highlighted.

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Breaking Waves

Breaking Waves
2001

This piece uses a destructive loop. The original sound is ocean-like noise. I encoded this as an mp3, then I decoded it back to aiff. Then I re-encoded that aiff to and mp3 and repeated this process several times. Mp3s are supposed to have transparent compression, so the user never hears the lost information. However, after repeated processing, the wave sounds break down.

This piece was released on Ibol Records Random Spheres of Influence in 2001

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Airwaves No. 2

Airwaves No. 2
2002

Airwaves is a series of tape music featuring the sounds of analog modular synthesis. It primarily uses a MOTM modular synthesizer. Because the sound of this synthesizer is so naturally big, pieces in this series try to give the listener some space by creating music with more air in it.

This piece was performed at Woodstockhausen 2002

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