notesdontmatter

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Iannis Xenakis,‘Voyage absoludes vnari vers andromede’:




This certainly sounds like the title suggests it should. Lots of ‘space age’ blips and early synthesiser type sound effects. I love the emphasis on pure sine waves phasing in and out of tune with each other. The dissonances produced in this piece are unusually ‘beautiful’ at least to my ears anyway. The feeling evoked is definitely one of a warp speed journey passing through different areas of space time and density.


Gabrielle Manca, ‘Inflagranti’:



Striking resemblance?

Performed by Australian guitarist Geoffrey Morris this felt like more of an exercise in developing expressive techniques with the guitar than a piece of music or organised soundscape. It seemed very random despite certain themes repeating often (such as the ascending glissando to a sharp percussive stab). Parts of this sound incredibly difficult to play and Morris is certainly up to the challenge, but knowing his capabilities inspires me to search his repertoire for something a little more traditional.
Unfortunately I wasn’t inspired to research Manca as a result of hearing Inflagranti.

Geoffrey Morris Example


Phillip Glass, ‘Rubric’:





Phillip Glass contemplates the serious issues of the day.......








Phil goes off!





Fast minor 7th and suspended 4th arpeggios? Harmonised beautifully? Pushing musicians to their physical limits (especially the flutes and bass player)? What more could you possibly want from a piece of music?
Fantastic.

Phillip Glass Example



Workshop:

Seb Tomczak:




An honours student at Elder Conservatorium of Music, Seb is an innovative young composer who utilises technology along with random and hopefully undiscovered instrumentation techniques in his quest for creative output. As creator of the Milk Crate recording session concept (http://www.milkcrate.com.au/) he is working toward original and diverse approaches to musicianship and composition by limiting the tools one has available for creating raw sound and removing himself and other musicians from their comfort zone as artists. Once the raw sound of a session is captured by a computer various software applications are applied to the sound files as necessary to create a composition. ‘Max’ (http://sbooth.org/Max/) and ‘Plogue Bidule’ are a couple of examples; (http://www.plogue.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=21&Itemid=35).

There were definitely some interesting results presented to us and I believe that the nature of the Milk Crate concept will yield more and more diverse compositions for the duration of the project.

Milkcrate example:
Milkcrate Example

Creative Computing:

Pro Tools:

I have been using Pro Tools for some years now and I am always keen to mess with other users files to see how they have utilised the system. The NIN file is relatively straightforward with a modest track number (14) to deal with and the quantity of effects and automation of parameters isn’t out of control. I’m not sure why it defaults to a short drum loop upon opening, it could have been a mistake when the original file was saved.

For a bit of fun I’ve cut up the vocal track into a few short words and sentences and synchronised it to parts of the rhythm section. I then inserted the ‘Amplitube’ plugin on the vocal track to fatten things up a little……..

Remix Audio Example


References 27/04/06:

Boynick, Matthew. The Classical Music Pages. 2000. Accessed 27/04/2006. http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/xenakis.html

Kirkham, Robin. Elision Ensemble. 2005. Accessed 27/04/2006.
http://www.elision.org.au/players/morris.html


ABC Classics 465 701-2. Accessed 27/04/2006
http://www.johncage.info/cdlabels/abc465701.html


David Harris. "Music Technology Workshop – Iannis Xenakis, Gabrielle Manca, Phillip Glass". Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, EMU space, University of Adelaide, 27/04/2006.


Petit, Jordi. Phillip Glass. Accessed 27/04/2006.
http://www.philipglass.com/


Seb Tomczak. "Artist Talk – Milkcrate Recording Sessions." Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, EMU space, University of Adelaide, 27/04/2006.


Christian Haines. "Creative Computing – Pro Tools." Lecture presented at the Audio Lab, 4th floor, Schulz Building, University of Adelaide, 27/04/2006.

posted by David J Dowling @ 12:49 PM