BLACK SHRED
Black Shred is the second in a series of compositions that uses discarded paper and other detritus as the sonic building blocks for compositions created using unconventional materials and methods. Discarded black shredded paper and foil were shaped into a graphic score that was then photographed and transmuted into audio using a computer program. The score itself was played like an instrument, amplified with pickups and pedals, with the result being that the black score is paradoxically transformed into white noise.
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SUBHARMONICS
Subharmonics incorporates sounds recorded in the New York City subway system to create an audio journey. Recordings of the trains in motion, emanating industrial noise, are transformed through the use of filters into resonating pools of swirling frequencies. This sonic odyssey reveals the hidden beauty beneath the surface of an everyday experience.
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DEMOX4
Demo x4 incorporates recordings of people exercising their right to free speech. I have fused together the clamor of 4 different groups, vocalizing their demands, to create one polyrhythmic pulse of sound; a melding of battle cries of disparate entities. Included are recordings from the very first day of Occupy Wall Street.
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WHITE SHRED
White Shred uses shredded documents containing sensitive personal information as its sole source material. The shredded pieces, derived from financial and health documents, were incorporated in myriad ways and forms. Paper fragments were assembled and glued down on canvas to create a three dimensional score, as well as an instrument to be played and recorded. A photograph of the score was brought into a computer visual/sonic translator and employed to produce an electronic synthesized version. Finally the score was utilized as a source for vocalization by a reading of the text fragments found within its layered surface. White Shred is the product of bringing together information that was once critical, then discarded, then mutilated, and ultimately recycled into a reconstituted sound form: Garbage as music.
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ALARMING
Alarm: a warning of danger, a signal of fear. We are constantly bombarded by the sounds of alarms with such frequency on a daily basis, that we become immune to their intended urgency. They become just part of the sonic fabric of everyday life. Alarming recontextualizes these sounds that we have come to take for granted. A kind of polytonal symphony of source sound emerges that ranges from the private sonority of household appliances to the public din of horns and sirens. These ostensibly ordinary noises meld together to create a singular cacophony whose rhythmic repetitions overlap into a pulsing throb of reverberations.
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GRIDLOCK
Gridlock is a composition that uses the source sound and image of a location to create a layered sonic experience both real and imaginary. Screen shots from video are brought into the aural realm and used to synthesize sonic pictures which are then employed as another version of the original captured scene. The city is composed of a multitude of overlapping grid patterns. Everything from buildings, fences, streets, and windows all conform to the grid structure. Gridlock attempts to break down and recombine these frameworks into an alternate urban landscape. One that exists solely in the world of sound but conjures mental images of a familiar yet alien place.
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AURAL SPIRAL #1
Aural Spiral #1 is the first in a series of compositions which are inspired by Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty. In this study, the imagined ambient surroundings of the original installation site have been loosely rendered in synthesized sound. A photograph of the actual Spiral Jetty has been transmuted into sound through the use of a computer program. The rhythmic pulsing of water and wind lays the foundation for the first appearance of the jetty aural event. With each subsequent appearance, the duration parameter of the event is half as long as the preceding one, accelerating to the point of spiral origin. Finally the spiral submerges, sinking into obscurity beneath the pulsing waves..
Transrevelation concert review on Furtherfield
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PULPITER WAVE STATIC
Pulpiter Wave Static fuses ambient synthesized sounds with a short wave radio broadcast of an evangelical preacher. The radio channel drifts in and out of the sermon, as certain phrases stand out, and then fall away into radio static.
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MEDITATION
Meditation for Flute, Harp, and Electronics consists of two melodic exposition lines that were arrived at by an improvisational exploration. The instrumental lines interact with each other in a conversant fashion, slowly building in intensity as the piece progresses. The instruments are gradually encroached upon and overtaken by a wall of electronic sound which obscures and envelopes them. The score is completely graphic in nature and meant only to suggest the broadest outline of melodic shape.
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