,

Cafe OTO / Entr'acte + SAM / 14.04.12

2012-01-22T11:15:00.000-08:00

.

A collaborative event between Entr'acte and Sound And Music, to celebrate the release of Helena Gough's third album. Featuring performances by Helena Gough, hamaYôko (Yoko Higashi), Lionel Marchetti & Jérôme Noetinger, and Myself.

--

A special concert to celebrate the launch of Helena Gough's new Entr'acte release, her third on the label. The starting point for the album was the simple idea of using only the cello as source material. Original improvisations were made by cellists Anthea Caddy and Anton Lukoszevieze.

Helena Gough
Helena Gough is an English sound artist currently based in Berlin. In her work each new sound-space is created by taking everything possible from the tiniest element, working to make something from nearly nothing. This reduction in means yields dense and rich results.

hamaYôko
hamaYôko is the musique concrète-influenced electro-pop project of Yôko Higashi. Higashi is a performer, vocalist, butoh dancer and choreographer.

Lionel Marchetti & Jérôme Noetinger
Lionel Marchetti & Jérôme Noetinger are two of the most distinctive voices in contemporary French electronic music. As performers and composers they are amongst the leading exponents of musique concrète, taking the music out of the academic studio and onto the road since the early 90s.

Cafe OTO

Limehouse Town Hall / Entr'acte / 16.02.12

2012-01-22T09:43:00.000-08:00

.

Performances by:
- Vasco Alves / Adam Asnan / Louie Rice
- Alfredo Costa Monteiro
- Juan Matos Capote
- Mecha/Orga
- Tom Mudd
- " "[sic]™ Tim Goldie / Vomitimov Sarcofaguzi
- Lee Gamble (DJ set

Limehouse Town Hall, London
16 February 2012

TRACT / EXHIBIT IV

2012-01-07T06:10:00.000-08:00

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James Holcombe and I were recently invited to submit a collaborative work for EXHIBIT IV, an online exhibition hosted by TRACT. The work is entitled To Mr. R.R.G. Mann June 1962. EXHIBIT IV also features collaborative works by:

DAVID ANGUS
JMW TURNER

SOPHIE HOYLE
OLIVIA BAX

SYBELLA PERRY
TIM BOWDITCH

LIAM SMALE
TOM PAYNE

DANIEL IRONS
VASCO ALVES

THOMAS LOCK
TOOT!

TILLY FOWLER
DAISY LUMLEY

TRACT PROJECTS - EXHIBIT IV

Grand Union, Birmingham / 18.11.11

2011-11-09T08:34:00.000-08:00

Vasco Alves, Louie Rice and myself are showcasing our first collective performance that integrates live electroacoustics and distress flares. Sunglasses / non-flammable clothing advisable..

--
Echoes (disambiguation)
Friday 18th November 19:00 - 21:00

Steven Dickie
Solina HiFi
Vasco Alves, Adam Asnan, Louie Rice

An evening of sound and noise engaging in sonic explorations of the Grand Union project space. Audible and inaudible frequencies, waves and signals permeate the space setting up slippages between the aural, the physical, the perceptible and the invisible made real.
A chance to collect the first pages of the new Open File publication series.

Grand Union

MK Gallery / Entr'acte / 24.11.11

2011-11-04T06:43:00.000-07:00

Entr’acte presents: Joe Gilmore, Adam Asnan, Vasco Alves, Louie Rice, Lee Gamble, Cheapmachines and John Wall

Thursday 24 November
6.45pm, First performance 7.15pm
Free

Joe Gilmore is a multidisciplinary artist and graphic designer based in Leeds (UK). Working primarily with sound and print media his practice deals with human perceptual mechanisms, the nature of consciousness and being. In doing so however Gilmore’s greater achievement is the synthesis and uncovering of a precision-aesthetics at the outer edge of human tolerance.

Philip Julian has been an active part of the experimental music underground since the late 1990’s recording numerous works under the name Cheapmachines. His works have focused on the use of analogue electronics (particularly analogue synthesizer, feedback, contact microphones, objects and surfaces) and computer based works. Audio works by Julian have been published on labels including Entr’acte, Banned Production, Harbinger Sound, Staalplaat, con-v, Homophoni, Zeromoon, Twenty Hertz and Desetxea as well as numerous compilation appearances.

Vasco Alves, Adam Asnan, Louie Rice; The merging of three individualised approaches to electroacoustic performance, each with an inclination towards the same aesthetic framework realised under different conditions; of material regard, error and/or inadequacy.

Lee Gamble is a founding member of the UK-based CYRK collective. He explores abstraction through the computer, improvisation, digital synthesis, process, and the deconstruction/reconstruction of form. He has performed throughout the U.K and Europe and has had works published by Entr’acte and AUSREIHE. Lee has curated and co-curated several CYRK events and has produced and curated radio series for London arts radio station Resonance 104.4fm.

John Wall is an autodidact electronic composer whose contribution to the field is widely noted by critics of new music. His work has moved from early plunderphonic compositions, where he brought together unlikely combinations of musical genres to create fantastical new works, to large scale works composed of thousands of tiny fragments which create the impression of virtual orchestras.

MK Gallery

Ley Farm / C20 / Entr'acte E124

2011-10-18T09:12:00.000-07:00

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James Holcombe / Adam Asnan

Ley Farm (2002–9) is an expanded cinematic performance
for four carousel slide projectors with timers, and front or
back projected screen of variable dimensions. It was prem-
iered at no.w.here, London, in October 2009 as part of its
Light Reading series.

The visual aspects of this work use single frame extractions
of colour Super 8 footage depicting Ley Farm in Lancashire,
England — a place I have known and visited for over 30 years.
The film concentrates on areas where light is scarce or absent
(barns, outbuildings, stables), and particular details of the
environment; spiders webs, peeling paint, worn curtains
nailed over a window, water troughs and detritus.

The film was hand processed and solarised, a technique which
turns the dark areas of an image into masses of gold grain,
whilst retaining a recognisable photographic impression of
the source. This effect in the original footage is random and
flickers in time with the reel on which it was processed.

The most interesting frames from the footage (there being
18 frames per second, the minimum required to create the
illusion of real-time motion) were selected and transferred
to 35mm slides, to be shown by the carousel projectors as
greatly reduced, alternating sequences. Through this, the
illusion of natural motion is almost entirely subverted, where
each individual image/frame is relieved from the confines
of the animation it serves to reconstruct, and may now be
considered for its free-standing photographic qualities.

The sounds for the work were recorded on location over a
single weekend in May 2009, using a DIY hydrophone and
contact mics, mid-’90s computer keyboard microphone and
a Zoom H2 recorder. The sound material was then handed
over to Adam Asnan to arrange and mix, ready for present-
ation. The sounds of the location, being that they consist of
a wide range of phenomena and techniques, substitute for
the absence of natural atmosphere and temporality in the
images; of the living-breathing character of the environment.
This accentuates the subverted motion of the image via an
array of aural scenes that retain, even assert, their natural
motion by contrast.

James Holcombe, London, 2011

First edition of 50 copies

To listen and/or to purchase, visit the Entr'acte website.

Cafe OTO / 05.10.11

2011-09-20T15:25:00.000-07:00

I have kindly been invited to join Tom Choloniewski and DJ lenar, to perform as a trio for this evening of Polish improvised music at Cafe OTO 05.10.11

--
An evening exploring the outer limits of the Polish experimental music scene where free improvisation and electronics collide in a heady mix of rhythmic and textural invention. Headed up by the duo Mikrokolektyw - who combine a propulsive mix of electronics, drums and trumpet - their joined on the bill by Lenar (turntables), Rafal Mazar (bass), Tom Choloniewski (Drums/objects) and Konrad Geca (Electronics/Film).

Wednesday 5 October 2011

Doors: 8pm

Tickets:
£6 advance / £7 on the door

Cafe OTO

Apiary Studios / 12.07.11

2011-07-07T03:31:00.000-07:00

Unconscious Archives #1;

12/07/11
7pm - 10pm
Apiary Studios
458 Hackney Rd, London, E2 9EG

Adam Asnan (with James Holcombe, Louie Rice and Vasco Alves)
Sally Golding
Ben Gwilliam
Helm
James Holcombe
Joel Stern

===
JAMES HOLCOMBE & ADAM ASNAN | LONDON | no.w.here
Thames Walks; black and white dual screen 16mm projection by James Holcombe with fixed sound accompaniment by Adam Asnan.

Bearing little resemblance to documentary or reconstruction, Thames Walks is more an exhibition of extractions; a series of optical/audible, concrete/anecdotal artifacts, gathered at locations along the River Thames from it's source to the sea.

Presentable via any combination and number of screens and projectors, Thames Walks can be seen to follow a polyptych scheme - a fragmented, but thematically reciprocal collection of discrete parts. These parts are offered without a specific linear order, diffusing any sense of a teleological direction. This increases the capacity for each walk to be appreciated independently, as well as part of a greater, episodic structure.

James Holcombe seeks to film perfect rolls of film in camera, following a structure that determines the sequential outcome of each section of image.
Adam Asnan captures his source material using both conventional and expanded recording techniques, re-presenting these with a range of minimal compositional agitations. Both artists engage with their subjects via a highly considered and sensitive approach, thus in collaboration, the meeting of disciplines is treated with equal respect and attention.

===
BEN GWILLIAM | MANCHESTER | thosesoundsbetween
Ben Gwilliam is a sound artist active in the fields of sound installation, film, improvising new music and performance. He works live with reel to reel machines, punctured tape, feedback and assorted amplified sources.

He has been active in the experimental improvising music scene over the last ten years, mustering collaborations with people such as Claus van Bebber, Helmut Lemke, Lee Patterson, Matt Wand, Michael Vorfeld, Jason Zeh and others. He is currently Embedded Artist in Residence with Sound and Music & no.w.here (London).

http://www.thosesoundsbetween.co.uk/

===
JOEL STERN | AUSTRALIA | OtherFilm, Abject Leader, Disembraining Machine
Joel Stern is an artist and performer based in Brisbane, Australia primarily working with experimental music & sound. His interest is in manipulating and shaping ‘noise’ material into new forms that generate uncanny emotional, psychological and physical resonances for the listener.

Joel’s work incorporates DIY electronics, homemade instruments, text, field recordings and flashing lights. Joel's key projects include Abject Leader (with filmmaker Sally Golding) a duo widely recognised as Australia's premier exponents of contemporary expanded cinema, and Sky Needle (with Sarah Byrne, Alex Cuffe and Ross Manning) a primitive music ensemble using handmade and recycled instruments.

His numerous releases have come on labels including Naturestrip, MusicYourMindWillLoveYou, Breakdance the Dawn, Alberts Basement, Ground Fault, Impermanent Audio and many others.

www.disembraining.com
www.otherfilm.org
youtu.be/MhQ4ZoGmgNQ

===
SALLY GOLDING | AUSTRALIA | OtherFilm, Abject Leader
Golding combines film projection with performance and installation creating live cine-sculptures and interactions. Folly and foray into physiological cinematics, embodied beams and alchemical projection performance. Photographic compositions from printed optical sound and uprooted vinyl library music. Deconstruction of cinematic materials and apparatus, creating slippage between materialist investigation, sculptural forms, and bodily intervention. Cracked cinema for darkroom compositions, light bleed, contorted projection sports, dismembered narrative, strained sonorousness, whimsical instructional and wanton optics.

www.otherfilm.org
youtu.be/LrElkVYpRIw

===
ADAM ASNAN | LONDON
Four of One and One of the Other (12'00)
A simple study for four sets of identical apparatus and one different, each relaying its part in a cooperative arrangement. For this performance Adam is joined by James Holcombe, Louie Rice, and Vasco Alves.

Adam Asnan is a London based composer-performer of musique concrète. Adam's work promotes the aesthetic potential of fixed (recorded) and amplified sound, with certain technical principles that activate wider notions of acousmatic reception, and of the 'image' subject to the artifice. His compositions, live performances and audio-visual collaborations have been presented and staged across Europe and has recordings published by Entr'acte and Senufo Editions.

www.adamasnan.blogspot.com

===
HELM | LONDON | Birds of Delay
Elements of musique concrete, noise, drones and tones all play a role in a world where the sound of the human voice morphs into spectral rust, a shimmering klang swims alongside passive noise and the relationship between acoustic and electronic derived sounds forms a solid foundation. Helm is the solo project of Luke Younger, one half of the London/Berlin noise duo Birds of Delay. Drawing equally upon noise and ambient elements, the music on Impasse illustrates Younger’s continuing development within the field of experimental electronics and drone composition. Utilising synths, feedback systems and effects, these two long-form tracks offer a dense mixture of blistering yet melodic walls of sound. Younger has previously toured extensively through Europe and the US as a member of Birds of Delay with artists such as Emeralds, Pain Jerk, Son of Earth, and has shared bills with the likes of Wolf Eyes, Sonic Youth, The Ex, The Skaters, Sightings, Aaron Dilloway.

http://www.myspace.com/birdsofdelay
http://snd.sc/lWEzJi

Between Two Lights / Folkstone Fringe

2011-06-21T14:16:00.000-07:00

I made the location recordings for this beautiful work by Lucy Crouch and Katherine Payne, commissioned by the Folkstone Fringe festival;

Between Two Lights documents the time when light from the sun begins to take over from the lighthouse’s beam. Recorded from night to dawn this film captures the subtleties of time passing. The accompanying sound transmits Morse code using the field recordings from the site where this lighthouse once stood. The transcript of the text alludes to an infinite potential, the sound of the first moment of a new day. Hope is a central idea in this work based in Lowestoft, the most easterly point in the UK, as hope renews each day on the rising of the sun.

17 Aug - 21 Aug 2011 | 11 - 6pm
The Bank, 46 Tontine Street, CT20 1JU

Folkstone Fringe Festival
Croach and Payne blog

Dijlefeesten, Belgium / 30.06.11

2011-06-04T10:15:00.000-07:00

Performing for the Meeting of cars and planes event as part of Dijlefeesten 2011 on 30/06/2011, alongside Patrick Thinsy and Pieces Of Quiet. It is my first time in Belgium, so am looking forward to it very much (special thanks to Pauwel De Buck!)
--
http://www.dijlefeesten.be/beeldende-kunst

Misc .12

2011-05-12T12:21:00.000-07:00

Misc .11

2011-05-12T12:14:00.000-07:00

Misc .10

2011-05-12T12:10:00.000-07:00

Adam Asnan x ARAR / Panopticum / Netil House

2011-04-23T05:45:00.000-07:00

Myself and ARAR will be performing a long-form set as part of the PANOPT 01 (www.martapoznanski.com) launch Party, at Netil House 19/05/11.

Heptaptych / c20 / MK Gallery

2011-03-18T12:24:00.000-07:00

Heptaptych; single-sided cassette produced and issued exclusively for the Entr'acte event at Milton Keynes Gallery 17/03/11.

Heptaptych (extract)
Heptaptych (extract) by Adam Asnan

MK Gallery / Entr'acte / 17.03.11

2011-02-23T10:01:00.000-08:00

Adam Asnan
Jacques Beloeil
Theo Burt/Tim Wright
Mark Vernon

MK Gallery
17.03.11
6.45pm
Free entry

Entr’acte presents an evening of performances from a selection of its roster who have drawn inspiration from Gerard Bryne's current exhibition, Case Study: Loch Ness (some possibilities and problems) 2001-2011.

Adam Asnan
'Is it possible to capture an image of something that does not exist?' Perhaps not, but what is possible is the reversal; capturing something that did exist, to be presented as an obscurity. Recorded sound (as well as photography etc.) may offer only a rendition of an object that existed before, but as a new, amplified and dislocated form; its truth is concealed and its story is stripped, enabling for its mythologisation.

This being the case, it is possible to apply a recording of one thing to the recording of another, and falsify a connection. For this performance, Adam has specially prepared a selection of sound recordings that may attach themselves to Byrne's photography, despite their disparate or otherwise unrelated nature. Shifting from an emphasis upon the artificial (a cohesion of abstract qualities) to sounds that may enhance or subvert one's 'view into' an image.

Jacques Beloeil
Beloeil is a French composer based in London. His recent album for Entr’acte, Bath of Stars was entirely created from rediscovered cassette tapes found in a shoebox prompting Richard Pinnell of Wire to comment, ‘ Bath of Stars, ignores all current convention, combining a darkly humorous playfulness with a sense of Dada absurdity and no small degree of compositional skill. File under bafflingly interesting’.

Theo Burt/Tim Wright
Bastard Structures presents two works creating opposing extremes of sound and image. Using simple geometric shapes and synthetic sound, Theo Burt and Tim Wright construct formal aesthetic worlds that exercise and distort visual and sonic perceptions.

Theo Burt is a UK-based artist working with sound, video and light. Recent projects have focused on the use of highly consistent relationships between sound and video to create a partial predictability, and the effects of this on perceptions of time.

Tim Wright has been releasing electronic music since the early 1990s on labels such as Mute, Tresor and GPR. His recent audio-video works use light as a means to augment and subvert the spatial and temporal perception of sound.

Mark Vernon
Mark Vernon is a sound artist, musician and radio producer based in Glasgow, Scotland. He was a founding member of the art radio collective,'Radio Tuesday' and has produced programmes and features for stations including WFMU, RADIA, Resonance FM, CKUT, Radio 101, VPRO and the BBC. His radio productions range from documentaries and radio plays to more experimental audio collage and soundscape pieces.

As well as works for radio his practice encompasses performance, publications, soundtracks, web-based works and releases on vinyl and CD. He is involved in numerous solo and collaborative projects under a variety of names including 'Vernon & Burns' and 'Hassle Hound' who have records out on Gagarin, Pickled Egg, Textile and Staubgold. He has also self-released several small editions of CDR's on his own Meagre Resource label.

--

http://www.mkgallery.org/events/2011_03_17/sound_art/

SoundFjord Auricular 1

2011-01-20T08:57:00.000-08:00

I recently produced the first of Soundfjord's 'auriculars' (podcasts), which are now available to download/listen (in two parts):

http://soundcloud.com/soundfjord
http://www.soundfjord.org/

These initial two focus on the events and activities surrounding the grand opening of the Soundfjord gallery, with performance excerpts and interviews with the artists involved.

Sound Localities

2010-12-15T05:56:00.000-08:00

Sound Localities is a project being developed by Ashley Wong (artist in residence, Pépinières européennes pour jeune artistes and Transcultures, Mons, Belgium) that explores the experience of sound in the city through field recordings and interviews with artists, individuals and organisations in 7 cities: Ghent, Brussels, London, Madrid, Hong Kong and Seoul. The project seeks to produce a wider dialogue in a transcultural space with and through sound as it flows through many complex social and cultural spaces.

Ashley had kindly invited me to submit material, thus I chose a recording that captures a blessing and investiture in remembrance of the Roman Catholic Martyrs of England, given in London during summer 2010. The recording is entitled 'Investiture of the Brown Scapula' and can be found under the 'London' section on the Sound Localities site.

http://soundlocalities.tumblr.com
http://soundlocalities.tumblr.com/post/2175078191/investiture-of-the-brown-scapula

--

Locality: is a situated place; a fact or condition of a particular position in space.

Sound Localities is a project that explores the experience of sound in the city through field recordings and interviews with artists, individuals and organisations in 7 cities in the local, region and international space around Mons, Belgium. From Ghent, Brussels, London, Madrid, Hong Kong and Seoul, the project seeks to produce a wider dialogue in a transcultural space with and through sound as it flows through many complex social and cultural spaces. Individuals and organisations are asked to select artists working with sound in the city to contribute field recordings to express something about their city. These sounds are collected and shared online.

Participating artists will be invited to create a mix from the sounds collected from the different cities that will be published in a compilation CD produced by Transcultures in 2011.

Sound Localities is a project produced during a 3-month residency for Pépinières européennes pour jeune artistes and Transcultures. The project will be launched in Dec 2010 as an exhibition called ‘Resonant Cities / Transcultural Soundscapes’ featuring live performances and collaborations from Belgian artists and the contributed sounds from the project.

www.loudspkr.org
www.transcultures.be
www.art4eu.net

Exhibition in a package for Public Surface

2010-12-10T06:00:00.000-08:00

I was recently invited to submit a work for an 'exhibition in a package', an exhibition concept for Public Surface (Stockholm, Sweden) initiated by Sara Ludvigsson. For this show, each artist was required to provide a text-based rendition of an existing or yet-to-be-made work, of any medium, that is then compiled into a package (with all other necessary components) and sent to the gallery to print and display using their own resources. For this, I wrote a description of a sound installation that relays a selection of acousmatic source materials (or 'initial recordings') with a brief account of their musical-perceptual implications.

--

An Exhibition in a Package is a project initiated by Sara Ludvigsson, in collaboration with Adam Asnan, Nabil Ahmed, James Holcombe, Richard Owen, Kari Rittenbach and Joseph Clayton Mills/Adam Sonderberg.

Sara Ludvigsson has been working towards a realisation of an ‘exhibition in a package’ for Public Surface. An Exhibition in a Package is a digital file that contains all the necessary components of an exhibition, sent to the gallery for us to unpack, print and exhibit using our resources. The primary object for consideration is the premise of the package itself (ultimately, its efficacy), containing introduction, instructions, invitations, press release, e-mail addresses and 6 text-based descriptive ‘examples’ of works, to act as the artistic props in the model.

The exhibition is open November 28 - January 9

PUBLIC SURFACE
Hornstulls Strand 15, Stockholm
under Liljeholmsbron
Tel. +46 705 45 92 41
publicsurface@gmail.com

http://public-surface.blogspot.com/

Study for 8.1 (+4) acoustic stereo recording

2010-11-06T12:22:00.000-07:00

Live acoustic stereo recording of 'Study for 8.1 (+4)' at the James Taylor Gallery, London.

Thanks to James Holcombe, Louie Rice and Vasco Alves.

Study for 8,1 plus 4 LIVE by Adam Asnan

Call & Response / Live Performances / 05.11.10

2010-10-22T10:58:00.000-07:00

A new work, entitled 'Study for 8.1 (+4)' will be presented for JTP10, as part of the Call & Response programme of electroacoustic performance at the James Taylor Gallery 05/11/10.

--

Study for 8.1 (+4)
20:00, 2010

This study proposes a departure from my usual tendencies for Musique Concrete, choosing to arrange and present a series (or 'tier') of sustained materials, rather than a combination of discrete gestures that form a teleological structure.
The work instead orders the materials in such a fashion that accentuates the effects of their interpolation in a spatialised network (i.e. the superimposition of pitches, the multiplication of textures and locational dynamics).
The material itself is of an explicitly electronic nature; four sine-waves of an equal successive measure of pitch (and corresponding vibrating debris) recorded as seperate stereo pairs and combined during the works diffusion. In addition to this, four cassette players (each with their own internal speaker, making them susceptible to a kind of 'wolf-tone' effect at certain amplitudes) will relay the same four pitches from opposing angles, expanding upon the panoramic capabilities of the 8.1 system, thus providing for further timbral detail and spatial influence.

--

Call & Response will be presenting an evening of international performers utilising our 8.1 surround sound system at the James Taylor Gallery on Friday 5th November, 7-11pm. A-R-A-R (PT/UK) are homemade electronics duo Vasco Alvo and Louie Rice, on AM/FM Keyboard 6 and Tone Generator. Andre Avelas (DNK Amsterdam) will present a performless solo generated by musical automata. Brian Mckenna (CA) will perform an audiovisual work using feedback and harmonic distortion. Adam Asnan (UK) will present a 12 channel work by implementing mobile cassette players, and Kaffe Matthews (UK) will perform a live multi-channel work.

Call & Response are proud to announce a presention of multi-channel works by Kaffe Matthews (Annette Works), Robert Van Heumen (STEIM), Jacob Kirkegaard (Touch), Jo Thomas (Entr'acte), Tom Slater, John Drever (EMS), Ralph Steinbrüchel (12k), Eric La Casa (Room 40), Jeremy Keenan, Mick Grierson (EMS) and Dawn Scarfe. These will be on rotation from 12-6pm, 4th-7th November, at the James Taylor Gallery, and entry is free throughout. Full details of the works in the programme will be available shortly.

--

http://callandresponse.org.uk/programme/
http://jtg.org.uk/

Adam Asnan x ARAR / Live set recording / 13.10.10

2010-10-21T12:19:00.000-07:00

Adam Asnan x ARAR set from the Entr'acte event at The Drop, 13/10/10. Recorded by Simon Whetham (thanks)

ARAR x Adam Asnan - live 13-10-10 by Adam Asnan

Entr'acte event cassette / 13.10.10

2010-10-14T05:10:00.000-07:00

Produced and issued specifically for the Entr'acte event at The Drop 13/10/10, the cassette offers exclusive material from each of the performing participants:

A
Filter Feeder - Paroxysm
Adam Asnan x ARAR - Combine I
Jacques Beloeil - Untitled

B
Lee Gamble - Screw Dislocations (ZQ Edits)
Giuseppe Ielasi - Untitled
Jo Thomas - Strange Beauty

--
Adam Asnan x ARAR - Combine I
Adam Asnan x ARAR - Combine I by Adam Asnan
--
www.entracte.co.uk

Un Bruit, Une Melodie / Resonance FM

2010-10-04T02:06:00.000-07:00

Anne Duffau and Patrick Furness have invited both Julian Doyle (Filter Feeder) and myself, to talk on this weeks show 'Une Bruit, Un Melodie'. We will discuss our work in brief, and promote the upcoming Entr'acte related performance (13/10/10), including excerpts of material from each of the performers.

06/10/10
15:00
104.4 Resonance FM
resonancefm.com

Listen again here:
http://www.patrickfurness.com/unbruitunemelodie061010.mp3

SoundFjord Hlysnan: Adam Asnan plays Entr'acte (29 Sep / 10 Oct)

2010-09-23T07:56:00.000-07:00

Soundfjord have kindly asked me to programme their next 'Hlysnan' (listening screening), and so I will be taking this opportunity to present 8 works from the Entr'acte catalogue that have especially interested me.

--

Listening event | Wed 29 Sep / Sun 10 Oct 2010 | 7pm-9pm | £2 place reservation | Refreshments will be available
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/92354

Welcome to SoundFjord's purely listening event. Bring your ears to the gallery to explore the world of sound is all its facets and guises.

Continuing on from Yann Novak's event last month, Adam Asnan works his magic on your ears with sound that have inspired his acousmatic practice.

In the future, a variety of international artists, label owners and curators will be invited to curate listening nights once a month.

Venue:
SoundFjord | London
Unit 3b - Studio 28
28 Lawrence Road
London
N15 4ER

Tube | Overground: Seven Sisters (Exit one and follow West Green Road to Lawrence Road; approx. 7 mins walk)

--

Adam Asnan x ARAR / 13.10.10

2010-09-08T10:57:00.000-07:00

.

LIVE
Adam Asnan x ARAR: Vasco Alves and Louie Rice
Jacques Beloeil
Filter Feeder / Jo Thomas
Giuseppe Ielasi

DJ
Lee Gamble
" " [sic]
Tim Goldie
Séverine Serizy

13/10/2010
The Drop
175 Stoke Newington High St.
London, N16 0LH
20.30; £5.00

--

http://www.entracte.co.uk/events/

Fancies (release)

2010-08-10T07:48:00.000-07:00

Adam Asnan - Entr'acte E101

Fancy: a 17th century term generally describing a composition in which form is of secondary importance. Fancies were usually contra-puntal and in several sections.

This cassette offers six items of unsettled material, decidedly too compelling to be amalgamated into more complex structures. They are compiled and presented as such to allow for reciprocation between each, despite their fanciful conditions and/or behavioural disparities.

The cassette format was chosen as the most suitable method of presentation, being an increasingly iconic symbol of marginalisation, but no less prosporus. My personal interaction with the format allows for listening of a different kind, the kind that successfully suggests to me, and thus supports, a notion of ‘works in parenthesis’.

I dedicate this cassette to James’ car
Special thanks to Edmund Cook and Allon Kaye

See also Various (E84)
First edition of 50 copies
£5

Listen to a sample and/or purchase here:
http://www.entracte.co.uk/project/adam-asnan-e101/

ARAR x Adam Asnan 20th Oct (appearance)

2010-08-01T10:00:00.000-07:00

An improvised set with ARAR as part of the upcoming Galvanized festival 2010 programme.

20/10/2010
Cafe Oto
18-22 Ashwin St. Dalston
London, E8 3DL.

--

ARAR (Vasco Alves/Louie Rice) x Adam Asnan

ARAR will present a duo performance of modified electronics systems. Using two transistor radios receiving electro-magnetic pulses from pre-programmed patterns emitted from a drum machine, these rhtyhms are then manifested as amplified sound presented alongside a processed function generator, producing a set of pure test frequencies with direct intermittent disruption to the signal chain and heavy utilization of the stereo field.

Adam's contribution stems from a fascination with recorded sound, loudspeakers, and a notion of the acousmatic 'sound object'. On this occasion, Adam will use a simple range of recordings (recurrent or sustained gestures), derived from both acoustic and electronic sources, performed via a stereo amplifier and selection of small speaker drivers. Each speaker's response and condition will act as a basic pass-filter to the signal, that may be further manipulated by physical interaction or some other technological inadequacy.

--

http://www.cafeoto.co.uk/galvanised-festival.shtm

Examples of recent sound work .1 (Audio)

2010-07-19T04:48:00.000-07:00

MP3 compilation of recent sound works:

0.00-1:27 - Grumbles, Lapses (stereo, 11mins) (on Entr'acte E84)
1:27-2:14 - Fancies: six items of unsettled material (stereo, 38mins) (on Entr'acte E101)
2:14-5:04 - Hanger Lane Heracleum mantegazzianum (film sound, stereo, 14mins)
5:04-end - 3 excerpts of Four Thames Walks (film sound, stereo, 30mins sound for 60min work)

Adam Asnan, examples of recent sound work by Adam Asnan

'Flaunts' for Entr'acte mixes

2010-07-16T09:46:00.000-07:00

Flaunts is a music mix made for Entr'acte, consisting of other people's music that I have found especially alluring over the past few years..

http://www.entracte.co.uk/Flaunts.mp3
http://www.entracte.co.uk/mixes/

Misc .9

2010-05-05T09:37:00.000-07:00

Overview of Entr'acte E84, and thus, a mention of Grumbles, Lapses in Paris Transatlantic Magazine.

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E84 is an entertaining if rather uneven compilation showcasing the music of five different younger composers. Greek dronemeister Mecha/Orga aka Yiorgis Sakellariou's latest offering is brief (as is usually the case with Sakellariou, the title – 8:36 – is also the duration) and, for once, refreshingly active, his trademark sustained tones here embellished with a frosting of jangling metallic strings originating from what sounds like it could be some kind of zither. The timbre is mid-90s Paul Panhuysen, but the harmony is mid-70s Steve Reich – though there's nothing wrong with that, as far as I'm concerned.
London-based musique concrète composer Adam Asnan (though I see he still uses "acousmatic" to describe his work) studied with Denis Smalley, but the rough surface friction juxtaposed with raw field recordings of his Grumbles, Lapses (2009) would seem to indicate he's as familiar with recent developments in improvised music from Tokyo and Berlin (both Burkhard Beins and Taku Unami come to mind) as he is with the back catalogue of François Bayle.
Pauwel De Buck is one of a number of fine sound artists based in and around Ghent in Belgium, in whose Sint-Lukas art school he made some of the field recordings used as the basis for 2008's Neenah Foundry. The others hail from the courtyard of a nearby apartment building, the inspiration for the work being the contrast between the two sound environments. "Due to the enclosed nature of these spaces, the surrounding sounds of the city were heavily filtered," he writes. "Only a residue was audible in the courtyard. The overpopulated cafeteria, in combination with its bad acoustics, created a complex frame of sound reflections and textures." The source sounds have obviously been mucked about with and seriously treated, but they're still recognisable (just), and carefully edited into a coherent and satisfying 18-minute span of music.
Field recordings are also used as raw material in Tone Change on Pops' Farm (2008), by New York-based Joshua Convey, who's also a member of EAI outfit Fessenden with Steven Hess and Stephen Fiehn. I'm not sure if that apostrophe in the title is in the right place, but every sound in Convey's 11-minute composition certainly is, from the inscrutable rattles and roar of passing traffic that try to obscure the delicate pedal points and sustained harmonies to the distant guitar strumming left behind in their wake.
The odd man out here among the knob twiddlers and mouse clickers is Adrián Democ, a young composer hailing from Slovakia who studied across the border in the Czech Republic in Brno. His Dve prosby ("Two prayers") (2003–4) is a traditionally-scored five-minute song setting for soprano, flute and string quartet, in a rather airy live recording somewhat marred by audience noise. I'm tempted to refrain from making the usual remarks about dour, Eastern European new (neo-?) classical music, but let's just say Shostakovich still casts a long shadow. It would be nice to hear more of Democ's work, but not in the company of electronic music that far outshines it in terms of recording quality.

http://www.paristransatlantic.com/magazine/monthly2010/05may_text.html#4

Misc .8

2010-03-29T07:07:00.000-07:00

Review of 'Grumbles, Lapses' by Brian Olewnick, as featured on Entr'acte E84.

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Mecha/Orga, Adam Asnan, Pauwel De Buck, Joshua Convey, Adrián Democ (Entr'acte)

A collection of five pieces, one by each listed above. Mecha/Orga's (Yiorgis Sakellariou) "8:36" sounds as though built from sine tone along with, perhaps, wires vibrating on metallic surfaces, though his site suggests enhanced field recordings. Whatever, the piece is quite enchanting, kind of like taken a sliver of early Reich, a vibraphone portion say, and inflating it. Nice. Field recordings certainly figure into Adam Asnan's "Grumbles, Lapses", rather like a slide show, sections flitting by, naturalistic scenes abstracted by displacement, disruptive, uneasy, some appearing with the abruptness of a struck match. I get the sense of very tight control here, admirable and a little oppressive at the same time. Interesting work.

Yet more field recordings make up the material for "Neenah Foundry", by Pauwel De Buck, from an apartment courtyard and within the building, though here the result is airy and ghostly, not heavy, though brooding. A strong piece, both troubling and lovely. Joshua Convey, a member of Fessenden, probably uses a few as well in his "Tone Change on Pops' Farm", a wonderful piece beginning with shimmering tones that form the substructure for a huge load of more irregular sounds, including bluesy guitar, though that throb never quits. A beaut.

The final track stands quite apart: Adrián Democ's "Dve prosby" (Two Prayers) for flute, soprano and string quartet. Plaintive, tonal and very moving, at five minutes a kind of Eastern European blessing on what's preceded. Why it's here otherwise, I've no idea, but I'm glad it was included; good compilation, worth hearing.

http://olewnick.blogspot.com/

Four Thames Walks

2010-03-26T08:20:00.000-07:00

To coincide with Bill Fontana's River Sounding installation at somerset house, Myself and James Holcombe will be performing our newly commissioned sonic-cinematic work, Four Thames Walks.

--

Bearing little resemblance to a realistic documentary or reconstruction, Four Thames Walks carries itself more as an exhibition of extractions. A series of optical/audible, concrete/anecdotal artifacts, gathered at four locations along the River Thames and performed as an alternating sequence of image or sound alone.

The work can be seen to follow a polyptych scheme - a fragmented, but thematically reciprocal collection of discrete parts. These parts are offered without a specific order, diffusing any sense of a teleological direction. This increases the capacity for each to be appreciated independently, as well as of a greater, episodic structure.

Holcombe is of an artist genre that seeks to film 'perfect' rolls of film in camera, following a structure that determines the sequential outcome of each section of image. Where Asnan captures his source material using both conventional and expanded recording techniques, re-presenting these with a range of minimal compositional agitations. Both artists engage with their subjects via a highly considered and sensitive approach, thus in collaboration, the meeting of disciplines is treated with equal respect and attention.

--

20th May
Somerset House
For further information follow links below:

http://www.no-w-here.org.uk/index.php?cat=1&subCat=docdetail&&id=233

http://www.soundandmusic.org/activities/events/bill-fontana-river-sounding

Body Dysfunctional (appearance)

2010-03-26T08:06:00.000-07:00

Audio-visual collaboration with artist film-maker Thomas Lock

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Body Dysfunctional (2009)

BODY DYSFUNCTIONAL from Thomas Lock on Vimeo.

Body Dysfunctional is an audio-visual architectural motion study. All the visual and sonic elements of the film were recorded in an abandoned children’s hospital in east London. The camera – guided by the architecture of the children’s hospital – moves through many rooms, slowly revealing the remnants of a building that once was a fully functioning institution. Looking and listening in their purest phenomenological sense become the main vehicles for experiencing Body Dysfunctional.
The viewer is presented with a journey that discreetly pulls them in and out of the filmic experience. This is accompanied by an underlying investigation into the impermanence and fragility of man made structures by raising questions exploring the validity of the architectural journey that the film reveals.
This work was produced by Le Fresnoy Studio National Des Arts Contemporains and in close collaboration with sound artist Adam Asnan.

(please note, the sound is supposed to be whisper quiet..)

Body Dynsfunctional will be screened (the first in London with multi-channel sound) as part of the City University concert series, due to take place on the 11th May at 7:00pm. The concert will be held in the Performance Space, College Building, City University London, Northampton Square, London EC1V 4PB.

Plateau of Imprints

2010-03-26T08:03:00.000-07:00

Audio-visual collaboration with artist film-maker Thomas Lock

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Plateau of Imprints (2007)

Plateau of Imprints from Thomas Lock on Vimeo.

Plateau of Imprints is a recreation of a building within the context of a moving image and sound installation. The 4 screens represent the 4 supporting walls of the building - which was an old factory about to be demolished in east London.
My intentions were to recreate a space, but also play with the viewer’s sense of space. Even though I consider the installation to be very contemplative – each film in the installation is very photographic, the frame never moves, but there is slight movement within the frame – every minute the images opposite one another switch over to the opposing screen for one second and then switch back.
This is an attempt to disrupt the viewer from becoming to contemplative within the installation and encourage the viewer to question the representation of the building and explore the installation space.
This work was made in close collaboration with sound artist Adam Asnan.

Moments and Incidents

2010-03-09T13:13:00.000-08:00

Audio-visual collaboration with artist film-maker Thomas Lock

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Moments and Incidents (2007)

Moments and Incidents from Thomas Lock on Vimeo.

Moments and Incidents is a single screen/six channel sound installation. It is a work that aims to draw the viewer in and out of the installation and encourage them to transcend in a meditative state to reflect on the time and place that the film and sound was recorded.
This work was made in close collaboration with sound artist Adam Asnan.

Misc .7

2010-03-07T14:43:00.000-08:00

Misc .6

2010-03-06T15:36:00.000-08:00

Misc .5

2010-02-18T07:38:00.000-08:00

A review of the City University Sound Studio concert, 16/02/10 featuring 'Grumbles, Lapses'..

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Despite torrential rain a good number made it to City University’s well-appointed Performance Space for a recital of works for piano and electronics.

Newton Armstrong’s Three Windows explored the resonances of the piano – the second through silently depressed keys, the first and third through live electronics. The piano writing was atonal and rhythmically jagged, but in a way that allowed for drifts of sweeter colours, particularly in the overtone hazes of the second movement. The electronic treatment acted as an extended resonator, drawing the piano sounds out in unfamiliar directions, distorting them, microtonally altering their pitch, changing the timbre or adding glissando effects. This gave the hard piano sounds a softer, more organic afterlife (or magnified a hidden organicism). Although the pieces were short, Armstrong achieved an attractive balance between light and firm textures.

Erik Nyström’s electroacoustic work Elemental Chemistry took a less dialectical approach, seeking a continuous evolution of single sound sources. The idea was inspired by the continual variation of nature. But, unlike nature, there was no catastrophe or failure. Everything was kept at a more or less constant pitch of success and over the span of 12 minutes I found it wearing.

In his electroacoustic piece, Adam Asnan eschewed Nyström’s maximalism for a more fractured series of sudden outbursts and near-silences. I understand the temptation in the studio to keep piling more detail in, but it is almost always more rewarding when things are left out. Here, each utterance found itself stalling midway through, leaving only a low sine tone as evidence that any music was still happening. The rhetorical effect, impressively sustained throughout, was of statements or short chapters with beginnings and middles, but no ends.

Evan Johnson’s Dehiscences, Lullay was the most low-tech – and, interestingly, most enigmatic – piece of the evening. Although scored for piano and tape, the latter consisted simply of a loop of white noise, played over a cheap tape deck. This ran almost continuously, with only occasional step-changes in volume or pauses/restarts, just enough for it to affirm its own musical presence. The piano writing, by contrast, was densely gestural, swinging between violent eruptions (Knoop using his elbows at some points) and delicate cantilenas. Much of the material was highly compressed, struggling, unlike the tape, to find an easy route to identity, instead floundering in an overspillling abundance of flurries and ornaments.

The final work was that masterpiece for piano and tape, Luigi Nono’s … sofferte onde serene …. This is only known to me in performances by its dedicatee, Maurizio Pollini, so I was excited to hear Knoop’s quite different take. Whereas Pollini emphasises the serenity of the title and a close integration of piano and tape, Knoop broke the two apart, clearing away any mystical connections and exposing the music’s inner mechanisms. At first my ears resisted this, but it came to sound like a valuable interpretation that revealed new aspects of Nono’s conception.

Unfortunately I arrived late for the punctual 7pm start and missed Vaggione’s electroacoustic piece.

Tim Rutherford-Johnson

--

http://www.musicalpointers.co.uk/reviews/liveevents10/KnoopCityUniv.html

Grumbles, Lapses / Entr'acte E84

2010-02-06T10:19:00.000-08:00

A new composition, 'Grumbles, Lapses' will be released by Entr'acte (E84), due for late February / early March. The CD will feature 4 other compositions by Mecha/Orga, Pauwel De Buck, Joshua Convey and Adrián Democ, some lovely work therein.

http://www.entracte.co.uk/project/various-e84

--

'Grumbles, Lapses' will also have its first diffusion as part of the City University concert series, due to take place on the 16th February at 7:00pm. The concert will be held in the Performance Space, College Building, City University London, Northampton Square, London EC1V 4PB.

Programme:

Horacio Vaggione: Shall (fixed media)
Erik Nystrom: Elemental Chemistry (fixed media)
Adam Asnan: Grumbles, Lapses (fixed media)
Newton Armstrong: Three Windows (piano and electronics)
Evan Johnson: Dehiscences, Lullay ("Thou nost whider it whil turne") (piano and cassette player)
Luigi Nono: ...sofferte onde serene... (piano and electronics)

Admission £5/£2.50 concessions
Bookings: Concerts@city.ac.uk

http://www.city.ac.uk/whatson/2010/2_Feb/16022010-sound-studio-concert.html

Misc .4

2009-12-23T06:55:00.000-08:00

The italian duo Alberorovesciato playing live in a freezing cold boathouse in the city of hull on saturday 12th december 2009. A couple of recent friends of mine.

Tapesponding

2009-11-26T15:05:00.000-08:00

During early Summer 2009 Felicity Ford set up a project through the yahoo phonography group called ‘Tapesponding.’ Based on early communications between tape clubs, the idea with this project was that a tape would be mailed from one recordist to another, with sounds being accumulated into one continuous composition as the project travelled in the post.

Due to our collective mistrust of postal systems contributors decided to digitally back up the project at each stage so that there would always be a copy of the cumulative recording should the physical tape be lost.

It turns out this was a prudent choice, since the tape did indeed disappear in its travels but thanks to the sterling back-up efforts of Martin Clarke, an excellent quality .wav file of the original tape remains, which means that the tape can be re-made and posted back into the ether - and that you can hear the results of the tapespondence thus far here (http://thedomesticsoundscape.com/wordpress/?page_id=823) as an mp3.

For guidelines on how to contribute and for inclusion on the mailing list, please send an email to Felicity at felixbadanimal (at) hotmail (dot) com.

Contributors to the tapespondence (in order) so far…

Felicity Ford
Duncan Chapman
Simon Whetham
Joseph Young
Houtan Seyed Ahmadian
Matt Davies

Dallas Simpson
Adam Asnan
Martin Williams
Martin Clarke

See Felicity's page here: http://thedomesticsoundscape.com/wordpress/?page_id=664

Light Reading / no.w.here (appearance)

2009-10-24T06:46:00.000-07:00

Light Reading’s ninth series continues with a screening of recent works by artist James Holcombe performed collaboratively with artist Adam Asnan. no.w.here‘s project space will be transformed into an intimately immersive space where the works will use its potential to construct an encounter with them as well as enabling critical debate and discussion. Holcombe will present seven works including Ley Farm (2001-2009), Champion Fix (2009), Lomo/ Jobo (2009), Grim’s Dyke 2 (2008), Grain Tower (2006-2007), A Peck of Dust (2006-2008) and Hanger Lane Heracleum mantegazzianum (2001-2004). Artist Steven Ball has been invited to respond to the works; to question and provoke dialogue and discussion that will form a bridge between an encounter with the works and a critical dialogue with the audience.

James Holcombe’s work is a collision of working processes that explores the expanded outcomes that are possible through combinations of chance, improvisation and structure within the making and encounter with sound and image. Holcombe often engages subjects that play out their physical temporariness through a conceptual and physical treatment of decomposition; of the subject and of the material of film itself. Cycles of decay, rot and the ephemeral visible in works such as Grain Tower (2006-2007) and Hanger Lane Heracleum mantegazzianum (2001-2004) work with a representation and materiality of the image on a level of imperfection and reduction. Our encounter with them occurs conversely through an expansion of visual and aural registers. Holcombe sensitively explores the technical aspects and potential for the representation and perception of the image through improvised sound techniques, expanded visual formats and the nature of performative collaboration.

James Holcombe’s work has been exhibited throughout the UK and Europe. Screenings include Serpentine Gallery, 2009, VideoEx Festival, Switzerland, 2009, “Starting From Scratch”, Rotterdam, 2008, Evolution Festival, Leeds, 2007, Tate Modern, 2006, Avanto Festival Helsinki, 2005. He has also performed sound pieces throughout the UK since 2001 and leads workshops on the various technical aspects of filmmaking at no.w.here.

Adam Asnan (1983) is a sound artist specialising in acousmatic music*, completing an MA in 2009 with Denis Smalley at City University, London. Adam's work captures and explores various forms of sound material, set to an array of idiosyncratic operations, often using the loudspeaker as an instrument in itself. Within his practice lies a predilection for the classic musique concrète traditions, attempting to identify with the original theoretical/aesthetic framework proposed by Pierre Schaeffer et al. As stand-alone acousmatic works, artist-film collaborations or free improvisation performance, Adam's output has been featured in and around London, Oslo, Marrakech, Prague and Paris.
(*a term used to define the composition and performance of material for loudspeakers alone, but also, to describe the alternative listening situation that it promotes.)

Steven Ball has worked in a range of moving image and sound media, including super 8 film and digital video, as single screen works, in installation, and on the web. His current practice encompasses video performance and sound work, concentrating on location specificity and the spoken word. Recent projects include After Lethaby (video performance with Martin Blažíček, Lethaby Gallery, Central St Martins, 2009) and Figuring Landscapes (co-curator with Catherine Elwes, Tate Modern and touring UK and Australia 2009 - 10). He is Research Fellow at the British Artists’ Film and Video Study Collection, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London.

no.w.here, London
28 October 2009 | 7pm

no.w.here
3rd Floor, 316–318 Bethnal Green Road

Tickets: £5 door / £4 advance / £3 students or no.w.here members
Telephone: 02077294494
Email: james.holcombe |at| no-w-here.org.uk

Misc .3

2009-10-08T05:40:00.000-07:00

9thubradio two-hour uninterrupted broadcast of
Entr’acte material, spanning the entire catalogue,
hosted by Big City Orchestra’s dAS (October 2009)

Misc .2

2009-10-06T19:17:00.000-07:00

Jérôme Noetinger, one of the leading performers of improvised electroacoustic/acousmatic music.

Section 0 - The polyptych scheme in acousmatic art: an overview

2009-10-06T17:53:00.000-07:00

The polyptych scheme in acousmatic art: an overview
Section 0: Synopsis / Introduction

Multi-part forms (particularly, circumscribed articles as a result of smaller, segregated parts) can be observed across an extremely vast range of subjects, to serve a variety of purposes both functional and aesthetic. It is natural for us to encounter its uses in so much of our lives, and in such familiar territories that our attention to it's merits can be easily overlooked. This study is of the intention to form an overview of both the constructional and conceptual minutiae employed in these multi-part compositional forms, with particular concern for examples in acousmatic art.
In order to further support this discussion, repeated references are made to works that assert a polyptych scheme, a term used to specify any composition or piece of art of a pluralised anatomy, despite the mechanisms of its structuring principles, programmatic theme or motives involved.

The reader is introduced to the topic in question by being first referred to manifestations of a polyptych scheme from within the plastic arts (section 1). These are used as a visual model, in order to illustrate two particular types of polyptych scheme: one where its counter-parts are physically attached, and other, detached. The basis as to what constitutes a polyptych scheme is outlined therein.
The following section (2) begins to focus more upon the translation of multi-part totalities from the static and visual, to transient and sonic, building a framework for how a polyptych scheme may be recognised in music, with an insight to its ancestral trail.
The discussion develops by addressing the major principles of the acousmatic practice by introducing its perceptual strategies and implications (section 3). An essential work, representing a premise for the acousmatic polyptych (Cinq études de bruits by Pierre Schaeffer) is also discussed in reflection to the expanded capabilities of the acousmatic over purely acoustic practices.

Moving on from recognising the guises of a polyptych scheme, the next two sections are dedicated to specific compositional concerns. Section 4 observes the details of a reduced sensory effect (interim boundary ambiguity) with regard to two acousmatic compositions, where certain structural tendencies, and factors of cohesion/segregation are considered. Finally, section 5, proposes a scenario whereby semantic association and the polyptych scheme may be combined thematically, achieved by an interpretation of segregation, acting as an abbreviation in (the article's) time-space

Section 1 - The polyptych scheme in acousmatic art: an overview

2009-10-06T17:48:00.000-07:00

The polyptych scheme in acousmatic art: an overview
Section 1: A polyptych scheme

(1.1 - Polyptych)
The word polyptych, of Greek origin (poluptukha: polu = many + ptukh = fold[1]), was originally used in reference to a painting consisting of four or more panels or sections. Initial examples were most likely to have physical attachments, or be joined by hinges so as to fold the works up to reveal or conceal certain panels or parts of a total depiction. The Adoration of the mystic Lamb completed in 1432 by the Flemish brothers Hubert and Jan Van Eyck is one such archetypal example[2].

The painting shows two total scenes that are not viewable simultaneously. Its closed state (which is said to be its state on weekdays) and its open state are achieved by folding the left and right 'wing'. The painting in its closed state consists of four panels in each of the upper, middle and lower registers, and in its open state depicts a larger diorama consisting of seven panels in its upper register, and five panels in its lower register. Each panel illustrates a character and/or scenario contributing to the theme - the adoration of the centre figure. (A more detailed observation will be carried out later).

The words diptych and triptych are related to (and perhaps more familiar than) the word polyptych because they are a little more specific, consisting of two or three panels or parts in a totality. However, general use of the terms may now alleviate a specific reference to a 'hinge’ or ‘fold' and thus, may no longer imply a physical attachment. This expands the criteria according how multiple parts may be related to a totality, replacing the hinge with a localised proximity, a commonality in materials or more conceptual association.

(1.2 - An example from Gilbert & George)
Originally trained as sculptors, Gilbert & George's work has evolved through a range of visual forms during the 1960s to 1980s, choosing to embrace a variety of mediums as extensions of the sculptural. They have employed wider methods towards the portrayal of the 'living sculpture' - an idea that they have used at the forefront of the vast majority of their output, but also, the very way they lead their day-to-day lifestyles[3].
After realizations in performance art, painting and drawing, photographic representation became their staple, eventually resulting in a refined methodological and compositional approach to presenting their subject matter. The latter-day embodiment of their work - the large multi-panel and multi-coloured pictorial depictions have become their trademark form, instantly recognisable and most synonymic with them.

During the period between 1971-1974, which they first began to pursue photography as their most suitable means for presentation, Gilbert & George produced a range of pieces utilising groups of individually framed black and white photographs. A large number of these (known as The Drinking Pieces) were presented in 1973 under the self-deprecating title of New Decorative Works[4].
Each of these pieces would consist of between five to one-hundred pictures each, using a selection of images and observations of a particular setting, and were hung not in a linear sequence, but in constellated patterns.

Each individual picture has a unique responsibility to present it's specific part of the totality, and, denied the portrayal of any more than it's proportional amount of information. This enables for a more imaginative trace, where no individual component can present the subject matter in it's entirety, it is re-distributed to ensure a fragmented but reciprocal system of cross reference.
There is the obvious exception that some images may present more insight unto the desired effect than others, as some of the images used will play key roles in relaying the narrative setting or programmatic link. As each image in itself is framed individually in order to indicate its boundaries of separation from the rest, the overall arrangement of all the separated parts will conform also to circumscriptive shape. Pieces such as Balls (the evening before the morning after) take the shape of a large oval, where as Head Over Heels is placed in a diagonally leaning column.

These global perimeters are indicative of the localised proximity mentioned above: a device to group all related parts into a totality whilst each retaining their physical detachment. We may perceive this as a global body because of a relative spacing, where an inference to inter-related matter is contained by the boundary of the totality itself.

The shape of the total boundary may also be used as a compositional device for order that may further compliment the material presented. The fragmentation used in Balls can work to transcend the confined matter of each component into an almost ubiquitous occupancy.
As Gilbert & George's work developed they adopted a more symmetrical organisation of their material, working towards a stronger comprehensibility with regard to the inter-play of texture and definition of each picture. Many of these images were abstracted and somewhat chaotic, but were positioned in counterpoint - to forming composite structures that would support the subject matter.

By referral to a polyptych scheme, it is works such as these that I hope to emphasize, whether they are static in nature such as photography or painting, or whether they are of a transient nature such as sound. If a piece asserts a pluralised anatomy then it represents a polyptych scheme regardless of the affiliating principles of its parts. Any reference to a polyptych scheme throughout this study will not be used in replacement of these principles, but instead, used generally and objectively to describe a multi-part totality.

Section 2 - The polyptych scheme in acousmatic art: an overview

2009-10-06T17:34:00.000-07:00

The polyptych scheme in acousmatic art: an overview
Section 2: The polyptych scheme in music

(2.1 - Solid to sonic)
When discussing examples of a polyptych scheme in music, the points as outlined in the previous chapter, relating to a specifically plastic/static medium are carried over quite easily in principle. A piece of music in five movements and say, a painting in five panels, would each demonstrate a five-part compositional design, with each part it's own unique perspective unto the totality.
What is fundamentally different however is the actual manifestations of a multi-part totality between the two. Articles of a concrete, spatial matter will consist of all of their counter-parts and boundaries as a simultaneous and localised whole, and retain its cohesive structure - impossible to achieve in sound.
The translation of a polyptych scheme as witnessed in the plastic arts, into that of a transient, spectromorphological[5] phenomenon as sound, is infact a translation of sensorial perception.

As sound runs along the course of passing time in a singular direction, each of the smallest particles, to entire sections, will be presented in temporal sequence, therefore, a fundamental difference in design is employed in order to clearly relay a desired effect of annexation. In the vast majority of cases, each movement of a musical composition will be played and received individually[6], followed by the next and so on until the end.
Moreover, the details of a musical composition are revealed gradually, working with the transformation of materials over time. The listener must then experience the entire duration of a piece in order to understand the motives and relationships involved, as a musical design is one where it may only really exist in retrospect.
Conversely, in the plastic arts, as all components of a multi-part totality will exist simultaneously, there does still involve a parallel in its process of revelation similar to in music. A subjective observation of a static article that instead, takes place over time[7]. However, the viewer of a multi-part static work has not only the privilege to observe the totality at once, but also, the luxury to return their attention to certain details in perhaps no designated order or direction. In music, the parts must, to a greater or lesser extent, be ordered into some kind of sequence regardless of being of either a teleological or anti-teleological nature.

(2.2 - The Suite)
In Western music, the classical Suite (also referred to as Sett, or Partita) was one of the major musical forms of the baroque era, and may be considered as one of the key ancestral models leading to the development of a localised multi-part music (of instrumental nature). Entering the terminology of music during the mid 16th century[8], its initial specification was for a group of dances, with later examples exhibiting deviations from the original criteria, and 20th century revivals bearing little in resemblance but programmatic associations.

It is difficult to deduce whether a suite has ever been considered a stylistic condition in itself, as its substantive identity became increasingly blurred throughout its time. Instead it is simpler to classify as a scheme for the presentation of selected pieces performed in a single sitting.
Consequently, the term 'suite' was also understood to mean 'the following pieces', and continued to maintain this relative informality.
Arguably, it was Thomas Mace who first referred to the suite as requiring a compositional, or musical likeness between its 'following pieces', or the presence of a structuring continuity:

[It should consist] ...of an improvised prélude followed by an allemande, ayre, courante, sarabande and toy 'or what you please', all linked by a common tonic and 'some kind of resemblance in their Conceits, Natures, or Humours'[9]

An allemande, ayre, courante, and sarabande as mentioned above, are musical titles descriptive of dances, each with a characteristic pattern and tempo. As the genre gained cultural momentum, a basic core was established concerning the order of dance movements within a classical suite de danses. This basic configuration would always consist of an allemande, courante and sarabande movements, introduced with a prélude. With additional movements interpolated around the A-C-S core during it's development: the gigue (making a standard final movement from the years around 1650) minuet, gavotte, passepied, bourrée, loure, polonaise and air, known collectively as the galanteries[10]. These movements would have been unified by one key with modulations taking place in particular parts, played successively with or without intermittent rests.

As the trends in dances evolved so did the signatures of the musical movements. During the height of its popularity/familiarity the suite had splayed into a myriad of applications outside of the classical, at the whim of external settings and occasions. The suite model was exploited as a method to organize ballet and theatre extracts for musical recital alone[11]. This has lead to broadening its interpretation, and leading away from the classic foundation. Johann Sebastian Bach was one of the last composers associated with the end of baroque period, and wrote forty-five classical suites in his life. By this, Bach is considered the dominant reference as to the suite's 'standard' configuration during the latter period of its initial popularity.
Similarly, George Frideric Handel wrote among others, the '8 great harpsichord suites' and provides another influential insight unto the maturation of the genre, composing twenty-two keyboard suites in his life.

The popularity of the suite began to dim towards the second half of the 18th century, superseded by the sonata and symphony, where the suite’s ultimate functions were confusingly tangled into these newer compositional forms until near obscurity.
It was not until the end of the 19th century that the suite had not only began re-surface, but was being reinterpreted and revitalised into a freer compositional pursuit.
The typical dance signatures and trends of the baroque were revisited as neo-classicism rose out of romanticism, but was modernist tendencies that spurred new applications of the suite in a less derivative nature[12].
Claude Debussy's famous Suite Bergamasque (1890-1905) bears some resemblance in it's titling and arrangement to the classical but is perhaps more suggestive of a pastiche - mixing dance references (Minuet, Passepied) with impressionistic imagery (Clair de Lune), demonstrating that transcendent subject matter may be woven into the fabric of the suite model, no longer confined by contrasting dances.

The suite idea[13], allowed composers to write sets of pieces under a collective title unburdened by antique pretensions, an opened platform whereby alternative subjects of thematic material were explored, and programmatic associations were central.
Gustav Holsts The Planets (1916), is one such latter-day example: seven movements corresponding each to a planet of our solar system, and their astrological associations[14].
In turn, each movement would express a temperament synonymous with each of the ancient Greek deities with whom the planets draw their names: Mars - the Bringer of War, Venus - the Bringer of Peace, Mercury - the Winged Messenger, Jupiter - the Bringer of Jollity, Saturn - the Bringer of Old Age, Uranus - the Magician, Neptune - the Mystic.

Consequently, this transformation of the suite renders it even more vague, and makes identifying any determinate structuring principle impossible. Related models such as variations and sonata forms, (sets of ) préludes or fantasias each infer a typical configuration, but a suite may not suggest anything other than a pluralised anatomy. With the sonata form asserting a more or less rigid sequential plan for its three distinctive sections and variations implying a range of divergences from a tonic foundation. A set of préludes would suggest a series of 'beginnings' and may bear no resemblance to each other at all, and a fantasia, similarly, to be an open stage for articulation that is less concerned with a continuity. The suite may resemble them all. This is what is meant by the suite idea, that its contents and/or thematic materials are interchangeable, and thus, can be used to serve a wider range of purposes.

On the other hand, despite the suite’s liberation in the 20th century, one may still encounter issues when using the term to address related compositional models. It may still imply something that is rooted in its heritage that is unintended or unattractive, and at greater risk of misinterpretation. When focusing on multi-part totalities in acousmatic art, a term such as polyptych proves useful, as direct references to suites and variations may not be quite as they seem - as conversely - there are articles of a multi-part condition that exclude direct association to multi-part related terminology.
Simply put, the term suite may serve a common understanding, but has both too many connotations and too little, and is messy. Thus, the use of a polyptych scheme instead has much less bias, and suits the purposes of this study more appropriately. Furthermore, a proposition to continue the use of a polyptych scheme to describe the multi-part anatomy of a piece as a preliminary feature, allows a work of this kind to be named without referring to its structural details, or, principles of cohesion (thus avoiding undesired association).

Section 3 - The polyptych scheme in acousmatic art: an overview

2009-10-06T17:14:00.000-07:00

The polyptych scheme in acousmatic art: an overview
Section 3: The polyptych scheme in acousmatic art

(3.1 - Acousmatic)
Since the advent of sound recording technology, an infinite range of sounds have been able to be captured and manipulated, allowing the composer to harness a far wider range of sonorities, leading to more elaborate musical possibilities.
Our current usage of the word acousmatic, is based upon an ideal situation for reception that is purely auditory. Moreover, it also exists as a central reference to a genre of music that makes extensive use of these technologies, to rearrange the details of captured sound for projection over loudspeakers. The word was adopted by Pierre Schaeffer, based on the teaching techniques of Pythagoras, who was said to have addressed his students from behind a screen so as to conceal his physical appearance. Pythagoras believed that the message carried by his voice alone was of primary concern whilst the origin of it's signal deemed negligible.

Schaeffer (and later, Francois Bayle) expropriated the term Acousmatique from Akousmatikoi[15] (the student body of Pythagoras) for the condition of listening to a sound displaced from its incidental source, the loudspeaker allowing for this separation. Schaeffer held the effects of this situation as analogous to Pythagoras’ incentive for concealing himself. By divorcing the sound from its initial origin, the sonic information can be isolated, and thus it's spectral structure may be apperceived free of its incidental or anecdotal nature.

Michel Chion writes:
The acousmatic situation alters the conditions of listening, with certain characteristic effects ... Sight and hearing are dissociated, encouraging listening to sound forms for themselves (and hence, to the sound object). ... If curiosity about causes [of a sound] remains in acousmatic listening (and it can even be aroused by the situation), the repetition of the recorded signal can perhaps “exhaust” this curiosity and little by little impose “the sound object as a perception worthy of being listened to for itself”, revealing all its richness to us ... [with] repeated listening to the same recorded sound fragment, [where also] the emphasis is placed on variations of listening[16]

With the mechanical replication of sound changing the natural listening situation, the usual ways in how we may perceive what we hear can be divided or compounded into three basic categories, making up the variations of listening that Chion mentions above.
The first of these is causal, whereby a sound will be mentally traced to a likely cause, despite not having the full range of information present. A recording of a glass smashing, can be, from experience, recognised as such - the listener making correspondences between the sound and a potential object (or circumstances) that produced it. An extension of this is semantic listening, whereby once the cause of the sound has been recognised, the meaning of the sound in relation to its surroundings may be apprehended. For example, if the sound of a glass smashing is accompanied with human voices and clinking of metal on china, we make the connections, and deduce that this could be a restaurant setting. And furthermore, the relevance of a perceived restaurant setting in relation to further narrative (or syntactic) associations in a piece.
The third basic category of listening is termed by Schaeffer as écoute réduit (reduced listening), and describes the act of listening to a sound for the appreciation of its spectral architecture alone. This strategy allows recognisable sounds to be accepted as raw fabric, without association to incident or setting.

Since the acousmatic promotes variable types of listening (leading to perception), as well as the replication of a sounding unit (be it a tiny fragment or spectral mass), the criteria that instrumental music uses in continuation of a tonic between movements may be much less applicable, or may be otherwise expanded. The acousmatic practice itself does not suggest a norm[17], the ultimate goal is to achieve an organised structure without limits or exclusivity in sound material. Instrumental music on the other hand is, to a greater or lesser extent, confined.
If in acousmatic art, two sound sources share similar spectral properties, regardless of casual or semantic disparity, then this will be a perfectly acceptable grounds on which to relate them, as would the relation of two spectrally disparate sound sources used to expand a semantic impression. It facilitates for the combination of potentially opposing spectral or semantic circumstances, where a single listening experience may contain the sounds of a train or bird, proceeded by the sounds of a piano or any other sound. New coherences may be formed that may never have been considered before, as, they may have never been placed in such a dialogue so as to allow for a 'musical' connection.

Comparing an acousmatic polyptych to an instrumental polyptych, would embody all of the comparisons of acoustic verses acousmatic, and would entail not only the differences in construction, but also a contrast of perceptual systems. As a composer of acoustic music may consider harmony and/or melody as primary factors, the acousmatic composer may embrace all sounds insofar as they support a compositional or conceptual idea[18]. Although, being that the acousmatic purposefully abstracts the natural listening scenario in order to increase musical possibility, it also conceals information that may increase ambiguity. These ambiguities, such as the removal of cross-sensory stimuli, may or may not be central to the success of a polyptych structure, given that the musical criteria has been both expanded but also obscured[19].

(3.2 - Cinq études de bruits)
Cinq études de bruits (five studies for noises, 1948) may be considered not only as a collection of the first ever pieces of musique concrète by Pierre Schaeffer (and arguably, by anyone), but also bears the fundamental shape of polyptych scheme.
Its endorsement of five études, may, in their essence, represent nothing more than a series of combinations in concrète sound, where techniques are carried over and applied through different materials for the purpose of observation. The collective group could be intended to form nothing more than a simple comparative symmetry used to further demonstrate the musical possibilities of the medium. However, whether it is better to appreciate the work as one piece in five parts, or five études in localised proximity (as the title suggests), is not my ultimate concern.
Instead, I consider Cinq études de bruits to be an ideal model, highlighting the basic issues of acousmatic composition in polyptych form. Also, in discussing the work, it provides an opportunity to refer to the range of capabilities that the acousmatic allows over purely instrumental music, being that it exists as one of the seminal links between the two practices.

Schaeffer used a combination of harmonic and melodic sequences, vocal and musical excerpts from pre-existing wax discs, percussion instruments, and recordings of environmental settings to form a basis for each of the five études. Although, they are not all mixed together at once, rather, each étude features a relative predilection in material (that is, until Étude pathétique).

For example, Étude aux chemins de fer (railway study) is entirely composed from sounds related to the railway: whistles, rasps, clanks and grinding sounds, as well as the distinctive rhythmical figures of the steam engines in transit. Schaeffer mirrors these rhythms with 'closed groove' techniques, whereby a sound is locked into a looped rotation of the disc, endlessly repeating the isolated fragment. In doing this, Schaeffer alludes to the musical properties of the steam engine by allowing other sounds to mimic it. A fine line is drawn between an exhibition of the materials semantic properties, against a musical abstraction of them, leading to a compromise of the two. Both sides are treated equally: the realistic and recognisable source, and the artificial nature of its replication. This simple repetitive gesture is continued across the études, interpreted as a recurrent motif that serves to affiliate the pieces, despite their differences in material.
This highlights an interesting point touched on before, as the material that is being manipulated may bear no spectral or semantic complicity to the next, is instead, cohered by a technical manipulation.

Étude aux tourniquets (pinwheel study) opens with a percussive pattern spectrally and rhythmically similar to the material of Étude aux chemins de fer. The piece begins to develop using short sequences of looped percussion, alternating between lower and higher registers. The arrangement begins to free up, and becomes much more organic with a melodic passage that sounds as though it is played by hand. This passage is resolved by an intermittent closed groove, then into a second percussive passage. Towards the conclusion, the arrangement becomes more dense, and uses artificial reverberation to simulate its withdrawal into the distance. The replication of acoustical properties such as spatial resonance, could also form a ground in which allow for two disparate sounds to be cohered, inhabiting the same hidden environment. Or, as in the conclusion of this piece, used as a device for dissolution.

Étude violette ventures toward to a more obvious application of tonality, by rearranging the details of sounds produced primarily by the piano (although, I suspect there to be fragments of organ sounds included also). The piece is introduced with a collaged mix of noise and tone followed by rhythmical procession until, at 01:01, a single piano note intercepts and changes the course.
Here, Schaeffer utilises a range of techniques in order to abstract the material just enough so as to question its origin, but sustain a conventionally musical framework (use of identifiable pitches etc.). The reversal, and perhaps transposition of sounds that form the harmonic passage at 01:22, are believably natural despite their ethereality. A sound may be transformed by a studio technique and retain its realism, thus making a statement of the extended capabilities of the acousmatic by not only controlling a simulacra of any instrument, but an (artificial) organisation that in principle, may be no less transparent than an acoustic recital.

Étude noir opens with an almost identical range of material as presented in Étude violette, including a somewhat diffuse recapitulation of its harmonic sequence (referred above) towards its finale, striking an unquestionable affiliation. If there were no temporal boundary between the two (perhaps a technological issue[20] the transition from Étude violette to Étude noir may be apperceived as a direct continuation of activity, as the opening of Étude noir perpetuates an identical theme. The two would appear to be variations of each other in sequence. Étude noir acts as a transitional movement whereby the pitch-based material of Étude violette is restated and set against further noise-based material (hisses and rasps, and more obvious organ clusters), making for a gradual return to more abstract concrète phenomena.

Étude pathétique (or, Étude aux casseroles - saucepan study) completes the five études, and as a single piece encapsulates the ideology for musique concrète insofar as it offers the most elaborate intersection of material. It opens with three different transpositions of a metallic accelerando (saucepan lid), where an inference to Étude aux chemins de fer - the first movement, is made by passing the rhythmical metallic pattern unto an alternative steam engine (believed to be a barge[21]). As the chug of the engine proceeds, repetitive fragments of the human voice are included, placed against another ethereal use of piano, seemingly expanding the space. As the assemblage builds, the listener is presented with segments of harmonica music, and further fragments of voice (coughs, sighs and snippets of phrases). In this final étude, Schaeffer seems to be using the spoken word as a metaphor, apparently not using them for their lexical properties[22], but instead for their purely spectral and rhythmical attributes, illustrating the reduction of meaning in place of its concrete application. The human utterances retain no more of their origin than any other sound, thus a communal (and mechanical) susceptibility works to equalize individual disparity. The words (if intelligible) are extracted from phrases that are never resolved, but are arbitrarily repeated, rendering them further as abstract units.

Cinq études de bruits forms a route through the varying degrees of acousmatic possibility. Opening with noise orientated, heavily rhythmic material, unfolding via incorporations of tonality, to be finally concluded with an emphatic display of all the sound types in one setting. It’s explicit use of repetition sends an echo of the opening Étude aux chemins de fer throughout work, forming a coherence across its polyptych segregation. It is this idiosyncratic structural motif that allows the études to identify with one another, despite other more complex associations. A re-sequence may disrupt its allusion to a theme (or ordered demonstration), but may not dilute its polyptych effect.

Section 4 - The polyptych scheme in acousmatic art: an overview

2009-10-06T16:55:00.000-07:00

The polyptych scheme in acousmatic art: an overview
Section 4: Ambiguities of the interim bound

(4.1 - Perceived segregation/cohesion)
The ways in which we interpret the sort of multiplicity that a polyptych scheme promotes, are subject to certain principles in how we as recipients, apprehend degrees of relativity and disparity between stimuli in any given context. The ideal situation for the performance of acousmatic material is one where the sound is held as the primary informant and other types of stimuli removed, increasing the potential for equivocation and uncertainty.
Sound is in a constant state of transformation, and will succeed to overwrite itself in temporal succession. Thus, for a listener to digest a temporal design properly, and without confusion, the applications of material to form the design will need to be sympathetic to our ability to make correlations and contrasts under this reduced sensory environment (if a narrative or programmatic link is absent).

As the acousmatic scenario removes the active involvement of the other senses (visual stimuli in particular), instrumental music employs the direct involvement of vision to support the musical activity and design.
Where acousmatic art is projected by means of (seemingly) inanimate objects placed in the space before the arrival of the audience, there may be not the usual visual (and thus, informational) cues that active performers will provide. Although the acousmatic material must be controlled from a desk, the presence of the projectionist is in the peripheral. The operations undertaken in order to animate the spatialisation are minimal in comparison to a musician playing the piano at the forefront of attention. This involves an exhibition of observable movement corresponding to the production of sound[23].
The inverse of this case, is that a refrain from direct engagement of instrument, will not produce an audible result from it, thus by observing the player, what we see will be in direct support of what we hear. furthermore, the body-language of the player may lead to more detailed clues in assessing the breadth of a cessation, or indicate a conclusion.
As acousmatic performances bear little or nothing of such a spectacle, extra care must be attended to similar declinations or transformations of sound-signal, in order to communicate a polyptych scheme. A silence (if used) is electronic, and may not necessarily signify the kind of inactivity suggestive of annexation recognised in instrumental music. Instead, annexation of acousmatic materials must be signified by an audible differentiation and/or approximation alone.
Exactly how this is achieved is a multifaceted subject: dealing with matters of stylistic tendency and global/contextual function through to structure and pattern recognition, and psychological grouping principles.

James Tenny and Larry Polansky’s article Temporal gestalt perception in music[24], discusses some of these issues within the framework of Gestalt Psychology, an area of research based on the pattern or group forming capabilities of our senses. Tenny and Polansky propose a hypothesis based on hierarchic levels of time-spanned activity inherent in any piece of music, giving rise to perceived, interrelated circumscriptions. They are referred to as Temporal gestalt units (or TGs), where an element is the lowest level TG, a clang is a TG at the next level, two or more clangs at the proceeding level being a sequence, with segment being of two or more sequences, then section, and finally the totality of the piece itself. The criteria for how we may perceive a resemblance of elements at each of these levels revolves around two "primary factors of cohesion and segregation", these being temporal proximity, and spectromorphological similarities.

If a temporal separation between two relative sounding units is greater than those inter-element intervals, then this will be noticeable as a separation of some kind, but, a perpetuation may be deduced rather than a transference or sense of procession. Similarly, an instant spectromorphological change may still be perceived as being an extension of the prior activity. A particular example can be found in La Vierge (fifth movement of Chions La Ronde, 1982), where at 00:46 an erratic display of material in three jump-cut settings give the impression of a single amalgamated mass or phrase, despite their differences.

The identification of a polyptych scheme is centred around the first and second highest hierarchic TGs, (circumscribed movements that make up a piece, and the piece itself), for differentiation to be marked between movements without ambiguity, then the two primary factors of cohesion and segregation may need to work simultaneously.
More often than not, but by no means compulsory, TGs at the second highest level will be comprised of lower level TG combinations, meaning that they exist polyphonically, but not necessarily consisting of a related spectromorphological shape. In cases where complementation between sounds is achieved, different types of temporal proximity may be employed from TG to TG, so a communal proximity must be combined with a spectromorphological transition in order to isolate it‘s activity as being a separated movement.
That may, however, not be enough, as if the closures of TG units do not communicate an antecedence to rest or change, and the onset of the proceeding signal does not reciprocate, it will increase the chance of confusing the boundaries.

For example, if we were to compare two acousmatic works of a polyptych scheme that are based on similar source material, Jonty Harrisons ...Et ainsi de suite... (1992), and Denis Dufours Bocalises (1978) we would find their factors of segregation and cohesion differ between movements, being either clearly marked or less perceivable.
In the case of Bocalises, clear distinctions are made to a strictured pattern, where the transitions featured in ...Et ainsi de suite... are at times subliminal, and more obvious at others.

(4.2 - Bocalises)
Bocalises (bocal/bottle + vocalises/vocalize) presents three recurrent behavioural modes that form the basis of the piece, shuffled in amongst individual deviations, where the totality encapsulates an intermittent pattern of contrast. These modes consist of Hesitation - fragmented and erratic gestures, Coulee - a superimposition of multiple processes as a texture, and Interlude - a mechanised and metered ticking. Other movements are placed as expansions of the three main, punctuated by interludes as resets, lending an increased comprehensibility. There is only a single perceivable overlap from movement to movement (between Coulee 3 - Hesitation 2 at 34:17) otherwise, separation is achieved by varying degrees of approximation between parts. That being said, ambiguities are minimised by allowing the listener to become accustomed to the structural tendency relatively quickly, each movement exercising a communal cessation or closure, followed by a comparative setting as an identifiable and recurrent token of changeover. So it may not be a temporal proximity alone that would clearly signify a separation, even if it is considerably longer than previous intervals. But a combination of a temporal gap coupled with the introduction of a spectromorphological change as a consequent event.

A strong structural tendency is used in Bocalises, where rhythms and temporal-spectromorphological changes become associated with a course. This course is connected to the demonstrative intention of the piece where the limitations in material would act as a natural reference point against technologically aided transformations. "Each part [of Bocalises, utilises] a studio technique ranging from the simple mixing of game sequences to superimposition of tape loops, transpositions, editing, [and] fragmentation games... "[25]
Therefore the polyptych anatomy of Bocalises rises out of its method of production: a series of contained episodes specific to a range of elements, in reference to studio treatments. This being the case, interpolations are less likely to be of a specific teleology, but rather, a simple pattern of intermittent behavioural reprisal, sustaining the listener's attention for the full duration where no other sounds are used apart from glass.

(4.3 - ...Et ainsi de suite...)
The structural tendency exhibited throughout Harrisons ...Et ainsi de suite... is more complex, unlike Bocalises, the criteria that marks a transference between movements may not be distinguished so easily.
The version of the piece released on empreintes DIGITALes has eleven movements: à propos and résumé presenting “expository and recapitulative statements of the basic array of sound-types found in the work”[26] Five movements under a general heading of parenthèse, some offering supplementary titles (souffle d’insectes, résonance) feature mainly frozen granular masses. And the three longest, most elaborate movements entitled commontaire.
According to Harrisons notes, for the purposes of the CD the movements commontaire 2, souffle d’insectes (parenthèse 3), résonance (parenthèse 4) and résumé are intended to form a continuous whole, as are parenthèse 5 and commontaire 3. This being the case, it is exactly here where the identification of interim bounds becomes difficult, for if the annexations are subliminal in part but ascertainable in others it can mislead the listener, and increase ambiguity.

As mentioned before, ...Et ainsi de suite... offers a level of detail that may subvert a traceable structural tendency, making it harder to estimate its polyptych shape when listening. Certain transitions may take a semblance of the previous movement as its point of initiation, leading the listener to believe a perpetuation, to discover its differentiations later (between closure of reflexion and onset of commontaire 2 8:33-8:44), with examples of the contrary also, (parenthèse 2 opening via its characteristic spectral flares, to then maintain an identical grounding to the end of commontaire 1 6:06-6:17). Transitions such as this can disrupt the proportions of a polyptych scheme, as a simultaneous perpetuation and segregation may in turn lengthen or shorten a sequence of events unintentionally.

Conversely, certain gestural sequences are applied in the midst of movements that have been used to characterize the closure and onset of prior movements, again, subverting the intended polyptych shape. This may mislead to mistaken annexation, giving the impression that there are more movements than designed. The end of parenthèse 1 is concluded with a vacuum-like crescendo and a sudden close (2:42), a larger inter-element temporal gap, and then a lower case but accented gesture to mark the onset of commontaire 1 (2:46) - a basic TG method of differentiation.
However an almost identical gestural sequence occurs in the middle of commontaire 1 (4:16-4:23). This is then followed by yet another contrasting passage, one that presents a variation of the frozen granulations featured previously. This action may be considered in two ways: a structural gap used to trip the listeners attention, or a self-contained internalized boundary, intended as a half-closure or divider, rather than a deception.

In a case such as this, where the majority of the interim boundaries are not clearly ascertainable, there may be recurrent gestural motifs that can be recognised as being exclusive to certain movements. And, in situations that employ ambiguous transitions, it would be an alternative method of navigation across movements.
For example, the four movements that are said to be conjoined (commontaire 2, souffle d’insectes (parenthèse 3), résonance (parenthèse 4) and résumé), may be picked out in part by recognising certain occurrences of behavioural sequences. The most complex and changeable movements are commontaire, which have a tendency to shift and distract with iterations and breakages. Despite this, they feature variations on a harmonic suspension that can be recollected across their three appearances in the whole piece. The first of these suspensions can be found towards end of commontaire 1 (4:55-5:15), with four variations found throughout commontaire 2 (9:09-9:32, 9:42-10:06, a lesser example from 10:14-10:33, 11:02-11:20) and once again in commontaire 3 (15:52-16:10). Souffle d’insectes (parenthèse 3) presents an unusual, but recognisable, variation on the granulated mass characteristic of parenthèse movements. Its microscopic detail pertaining to a horde of insects (thus a semantic suggestion between sound and title). Résonance (parenthèse 4) stands out as a vestige of the parenthèse character, with the addition of distinctive resonant filter not found anywhere else (thus separating it). And Résumé serves as a recapitulation of the opening gestures found in à propos, continuing a theme related to the initial exposition.

This process of navigation puts the listener in a situation where, in order trace an outline of the polyptych shape, one cannot clearly delineate between movements until the identifiable motif is encountered. This may not be until towards the end of a movement, as, similarly, may occur at the very beginning whilst the remainder of the movement digresses.

Section 5 - The polyptych scheme in acousmatic art: an overview

2009-10-06T16:29:00.000-07:00

The polyptych scheme in acousmatic art: an overview
Section 5: Abbreviation of time-space

(5.1 - Notion of abbreviation)
One considerable benefit of a polyptych scheme in acousmatic art is that it may, by the closure of one movement and onset of another, suggest an abbreviation in time and/or space, providing that these annexations are discernable. What it is I mean exactly by this, is that an act of separation-combination such as featured in a polyptych scheme, may be apperceived as a process of summarization. A perceptual-compositional device that alludes to a condensation of key events or developments, allowing annexation to communicate a leap from one state to another. However, this notion may be applied to some works easier than others. For example, works that promote semantic listening (not discounting other media, such as film) may rely upon this kind of suggestion in order to relay a change in setting (and/or in time). Where acousmatic works of a more abstract, anti-teleological nature (or indeed, abstract visual arts), may employ types of abbreviation that are more subliminal[27].

This notion may be the product of a reciprocated cycle of article>perception: recognising a polyptych anatomy may then inform the mental arrangement in apprehension of a continuity (via a gestalt framework). The boundaries between parts may be considered and (mentally) sorted into an equalized contexture. The criteria on which a perceived continuity is based can only be speculated, but in some form or another, the concept of abbreviation may enter.
For example, within the acousmatic arts lies an intrinsic reference to the re-contextualisation of sound material, and, the compounding of this material into a single listening experience. In recognising that the featured elements may never exist at once in reality (a semantic decoding as it were) a sense of abbreviation (in contextual disparity) may be a logical deduction.

Leonard B Meyer notes:
The mind will ... find some basis (no matter how feeble or farfetched it may appear to be) for relating the stimuli to one another in an orderly and meaningful way - for apprehending the stimulus group as a shape or pattern[28]

Meyers above reference to 'pattern' may be applied more or less literally, although what it is I am pertaining to in particular, is a pattern of relating events under a larger, conceptual frame. This could be an inferred narrative or programmatic association where the parts and their bounds may exist mutually, a formulation that equalizes disparity no matter how feeble or farfetched it appears.

What I propose here, is that we may relate the groups of stimuli that make up whole movements with other movements, (and ultimately with the whole piece) via an extra-musical interpretation. As the acousmatic practice itself may only use replications of acoustic phenomena, it may be natural for most listeners to want to identify the origins of the material when they hear it and place it all within a context[29] To imply a recognisable sound, means to imply a cause and continuum of it, and, as an expansion, a movement could imply a setting that has also a cause and continuum. This being the case, then the boundaries have to represent something in this context also, and thus may be interpreted to represent the concealment of say, the 'natural' progression between each.

There lies strong parallels with this notion, and the Law of Prägnanz - an axiom of the Gestalt system of psychology[30]. This law represents the processes of psychological organization where the ultimate function is to maintain a perceived regularity, rendering the stimulus conditions into the simplest, most essential form. Where my notion of abbreviation may not be connected to psychological simplification as such, it is connected to a type of psychological regularization. By applying a programmatic direction (advertised by the composer, or, a result of conjecture) it allows the mind to ground the activity to within a locale, where the gaps between disparate articles can be reconciled.

(5.2 - The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb)
Returning to The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb as a model, we may see that in its open state, twelve enclosures each depicting a character or group of characters are arranged into a hierarchic symmetry. The central character (Majestas Domini - Christ as king[31]) is given paramount position in this symmetry, culminating as the meeting point of perspective and lines of sight. Each of the characters featured play a significant role within Christian mythology, and for the purposes of the image, are brought together to form a single entity in adoration of their lord[32].

OPEN
Left wing:
In the upper far-left panel is Adam, above him, a grisaille depiction of Cain and Abel upon the alcove in which he is seemingly walking out of. The upper inner-left panel shows a chorus of eight angels singing hymns. Below Adam, the far-left lower panel, a copy of the Just Judges, after the original was stolen in 1934. Beside that, continuing into the lower inner-left wing of the larger diorama are the knights of Christ.

Centre:
In the upper centre-left panel sits the crowned Virgin Mary, beside this, and making the upper centre panel is Christ the King. With John the Baptist featured within upper centre-right panel.
The large lower-centre panel encapsulates the sacrifice of the lamb, surrounded by winged angels. In the background to the left, are the male martyrs of the clergy, and opposite, the female martyrs. In left of the foreground is a mixture of Jewish prophets, and pagan writers, where as on the right, are the male saints.

Right wing:
In the upper far-right panel is Eve, forming a parallel to Adam, with a similar grisaille of Cain and Abel (this time, depicting the murder of Abel by Cain) atop the alcove in which she stands.
The inner-right panel shows a quintet of angels playing musical instruments, forming yet another parallel to the chorus on the opposite side. In the far-right lower panel, beneath Eve, stands the pilgrims, and continuing into the lower inner-right panel, the hermits.

CLOSED
Left wing:
The upper far-left arched panel shows Zacharias, with Sibyl on the upper inner-left. Beneath Zacharias, features the Archangel Gabriel, and the middle inner-left a continuation of the space that Gabriel inhabits. The lower far-left panel shows one of the patrons who commissioned the painting, Joos Vijd, and, the lower inner-left panel a grisaille statue of John the Baptist.

Right wing:
The upper far-right arched panel shows Micah, with a second portrayal of Sibyl presented within the upper inner-right. Beneath Micah, in the middle far-right, the Virgin Mary, with another continuation of the space extending into the middle inner-right. Another patron who commissioned the painting, Joos Vijds wife, Elisabeth Borluut is featured within the lower far-right panel, with John the Evangelist (in grisaille again) positioned in the lower inner-right.

(For the purpose of this study, we will only look at the piece in its open state)

If we observe the upper registers, we can see that there are three distinctive environments: the alcoves where Adam and Eve stand, the space defined by the beige, patterned floor where the musicians are located, and the space defined by the brown-red brick tiles, inhabited by Mary, Christ and John the Baptist. In this, the polyptych scheme serves to abbreviate the spatial continuum (and their environmental contexts) in order to create an ensemble of key figures as a single visual experience.
The lower registers present what appears to be a ceaseless diorama, using the horizon and skyline as a reference point of continuity. However if we observe the ground on the centre panel to that of the left and right wing, we can see a disparity between brown earth and green grass - exercising a more subliminal abbreviation of the spatial continuum. This returns to the ambiguity of the interim bound - where partitions are not clearly ascertainable because certain components are unaffected (that is, if we were not able to actually see the bar that divides the panels.)

(5.3 - La Ronde)
Michel Chions ten movement suite La Ronde (1982) works with a very similar idea, by alluding to a collection of thoughts or mental images of an individual, illustrated by aural scenes.

Chion writes:
If one were to give a plot to La Ronde, it might be as follows: a person, it makes no difference whether it is a man or a woman, finds [themself] midway through the journey of this life, and reflects, dreams, feels, remembers... Thinks of a woman of an older generation, perhaps a relative. And of [themself] as a child.
The composition is the round of his or her feelings: at times bitter, mixed, obscure, at times warm and clear, and at other times colder but as though ruminating or gestating something. [33]

In doing this, Chion creates a setting for the material that helps to equalize its disparities. We imagine that it is a sequence of thoughts of another person, prone to overlap and change, the spaces between the movements acting as abbreviations of time and space, or, of experiences and memories. We may interpret the transitions between movements as shifts back and forth to different points in the subjects life, imagining the inner workings and reflections of an objective (fictional) mind. We are invited to conjure our own pictures through it and attach our own subjective story to fill the gaps.
Because the composition is not set within, nor indicative of a realistic universe, but perhaps echoes of one (which is ultimately representative of the acousmatic artform itself), sudden changes and superimpositions are grounded by what narrative we can project unto it.

The piece opens with Pensées du matin, where disembodied phrases appear and are then perturbed, a constellation of thoughts that are otherwise interrupted. There is a text read by a female voice, perhaps the internal annotation of the individual, but, interwoven between and around the phrases as if susceptible to the same tensions.

The third movement, L'Eté presents an impressionistic scene of a siesta on a summer afternoon, with floating phrases and gestures. The 'format' of the piece is larger, simulating an acoustical resonance where sounds are registered but then slowly obscured by distance, as if loosing focus in the subjects sleepy state.
Where movements such as the fourth, Playtime, sets a more concrete scene: an “urban time spent between functional and alienating activities”[34], illustrated by a high pitched melodic sequence of electronic notes - light-hearted in nature - but gives the impression of concentration. Another slower melodic sequence leads into a texture of acoustically captured electronic blips and crashes, associated with gaming arcades of the time.

Similarly, the seventh movement, Pour Lucienne, begins with a busy scene of what one is led to believe is a fairground scenario, with mechanical organs and a texture of mixed voices. This allows us to reference a specific image - but slowly descends into something more dramatic. A deep organ melody leads into a sustained organ chord, while excerpts of music and street sounds are portrayed with ambiguous meanings. The organs bring with it a sense of tension, as if the subjects thoughts have formed a chain: pleasant or indifferent, to distress, to remorse.

The last movement Pensées du soir, recapitulates the opening movement, and culminates a cycle, where the compositional structure of the piece mirrors the round of his or her feelings. It has the addition of ethereal sweeps of voices and noise, suggestive of newly accumulated memories of the subjects day, or, an invasion of the subjects present ‘real-world’ environment into their train of thought.

So, via this programmatic or imaginary course, we are able to generate conscious conclusions in the knowledge that the sound-world is not bound by a conventional sense of time. A perceived summarization or network of abbreviations is therefore perfectly plausible. Therein lies a double reading: time-space is fictitious and rendered volatile, where any aural setting is possible. On the other hand, the acousmatic medium is a mirror of this, and why La Ronde can work to such an evanescent theme. The setting of La Ronde could be seen to be an exemplification, or even a parody of the acousmatic medium, whilst being acousmatic itself.
What segregations are present as an inherent result of the polyptych annexation are not valid for their compositional effect alone, for in a setting such as La Ronde, they may be easily incorporated into the narrative.

Section 6 - The polyptych scheme in acousmatic art: an overview

2009-10-06T16:25:00.000-07:00

The polyptych scheme in acousmatic art: an overview
Section 6: Concise conclusion

As stated in the introduction, this study was of the intention to form an overview of the polyptych situation. While researching the variable guises of the polyptych, across both a myriad of interpretations and purposes, a level of both theoretical and practical complexity was revealed that I, at first, had not anticipated. These revelations expanded the investigative parameters that I had originally set out for myself, and, continued to raise more questions than this study had the capacity to include (i.e. what are the implications of flexibility in the polyptych scheme? In acousmatic art, how do track markings on recordings, or other navigational aids effect ones impression of a polyptych shape? What are the details of 'abbreviation' utilised in acousmatic works that do not assert an extra-musical message?)
Therefore, as a result, only the key concerns are outlined, dealing with (in the hope that these are comprehensive enough) recognition and translation to construct, and, combinations of further interpretation and perception.

In producing this study, one simple but important point is affirmed perhaps above all others: the proposal and promotion of a categorical term in defining a multi-part compositional form as a polyptych scheme. As the reader may be introduced to a concise deconstruction of the multipartite phenomenon, and are, of course, entitled to disagree with the ideas expressed therein, it is the use of this term that I urge to be retained. In doing so, the tricky subject of naming a pluralised anatomy without bias can be resolved, and perhaps, lead to further cross-pollination.

The investigative trails of other authors such as Leonard B Meyer, Mathew Adkins, Denis Smalley, James Tenny and Larry Polansky, play an important role in reflection of this study, as they have all offered detailed hypotheses regarding the principles of grouping sound-forms (and thus, implying separation), from either a spectromorphological, or, psychological position.
Their accounts are, however, concerned with the grouping or attachment of all perceived musical units, where as in the case of my own, an attempt has been made to apply these accounts to the boundaries of counter-parts in order draw out certain mechanisms. Any area of this study that may need further explanation, I would recommend that the reader consults these related hypotheses in order to attain a more in-depth and generalized understanding, that will, undoubtedly, extend upon the basis that this paper offers.
--
Adam Asnan (2009)

Section 7 - The polyptych scheme in acousmatic art: an overview

2009-10-06T16:14:00.000-07:00

The polyptych scheme in acousmatic art: an overview
Section 7: Notes and references

Section 1
1. See ‘Polyptych’, Dictionary.com [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/polyptych] accessed 01 August 2009.
2. See ‘Altarpiece’, Encyclopaedia Britannica Online [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/17531/altarpiece] accessed 01 August 2009
3. See Livingstone, M., ‘From the Heart’ in Gilbert & George: Major Exhibition, Tate modern pp. 15
4. See Livingstone, M., ‘From the Heart’ in Gilbert & George: Major Exhibition, Tate modern pp. 16

Section 2
5. See Smalley, D., ‘Spectro-morphology and structuring processes’ in The Language of Electroacoustic Music. pp.61-93
6. But, contemplated in relation to the rest.
7. The longer one spends studying a painting, the better their understanding will be of the compositional design, and the better one’s familiarity will become of the motives employed - even if they are just personal projections.
8. See Fuller, D., ‘Suite’, Section 1: terminology, Grove Music Online, [http://www.grovemusic.com] accessed 05 July 2009.
9. Quote from Mace, T., (1676), cited in Fuller, D., ‘Suite’, Section 1: terminology, Grove Music Online, [http://www.grovemusic.com] accessed 05 July 2009
10. As found in the classical French suite. See Kennedy, M., ‘Galantries’, The Oxford Dictionary of Music, pp.329
11. See Fuller, D., ‘Suite’, Section 7: non-classical suites of the high Baroque, Grove Music Online, [http://www.grovemusic.com] accessed 05 July 2009
12. See Fuller, D., ‘Suite’, Section 12: 20th century, Grove Music Online, [http://www.grovemusic.com] accessed 05 July 2009
13. ibid 12.
14. Pluto undiscovered at the time of composition (1916)

Section 3
15. See ‘Pythagoras’, Wikipedia, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagoras] accessed 01 July 2009
16. Quote from Chion, M., (1983) Guide des objets sonores, translated from French by J. Dack, C. North, pp.11 [corresponding page found in] Chion, M., Guide des objets sonores; Pierre Schaeffer et la recherche musicale., pp.18
17. Although like all of the arts, certain locales or sub-genres may assert a different stylization from place to place.
18. This is not to discount instrumental or percussive music that explores the same ideas, but instead, to differentiate between degrees of musical acceptance: the vernacular language of tonality and that of sounds that are no less 'musical' in their structure, but nevertheless considered separate.
19. See section 5 (ambiguity of the interim boundary).
20. The first equipment used to record compositions of musique concrète were subject to a limited capacity per unit. All five of the Cinq études de bruits could not have been cut onto a single wax disc whilst retaining the highest audibility. This means that each of the études would have been cut as separate physical components. A link can be traced here to polyptych works of a physical substance, in which their multiplicity may have been the result of physical limitations that would otherwise prohibit the construction of an absolute article.
21. See Renouard Larivière, R., ‘The Art of the Étude’ in [CD notes] Archives GRM; l’art de l‘étude [Audio recording] pp. 19-20
22. Although there may be a communication between "on your lips" and the sigh of a woman at 02:43. See ibid 21.
Section 4
23. As what Schaeffer may have described as direct listening, and thus a relative of causal listening. See Chion, M., Audio-Vision; sound on screen, pp.72
24. In Journal of Music Theory, vol. 24, no. 2 (1980) [http://www.jstor.org/stable/843503] accessed 14 may 2009
25. Quote from Dufour, D., (2002) [CD notes] Bocalises [Audio recording], pp.3
26. Quote from Harrison, J., (1996) [CD notes] Articles Indéfinis [Audio Recording], pp.17-19

Section 5
27. Although a time-based visual medium such as film may encounter more difficulty achieving a desired abbreviation by itself while avoiding discontinuity, an acousmatic accompaniment can help to conceal lesser abbreviations such as a shift in prospective. See Chion, M., Audio-Vision; sound on screen, pp.13
28. Quote from Meyer, L.B., (1956) Emotion and Meaning in Music, pp.160
29. See Wishart, T., ‘Sound symbols and Landscapes’, in The Language of Electroacoustic Music, pp.41-60
30. L.B. Meyer outlines, and applies this theory to music in much more detail. See Meyer, L.B., Emotion and Meaning in Music, pp.160
31. See Bowman, D., About Ghent Altarpiece, [http://www.aiwaz.net/about-ghent-altarpiece/a49] accessed 05 June 2009
32. For a full deconstruction, with individual images, see Gerten-Jackson, C., Jan & Hubert van Eyck, [http://cgfa.sunsite.dk/eyck/ghent/index.html] accessed 17 March 2009
33. Quote from Chion, M., (1983) [LP notes, English version] La Ronde [Audio recording], pp.1
34. ibid 33.

--

Sources
Adkins, M., The application of mimetic analysis to electroacoustic music, in EMS08 (Electroacoustic Music Studies network) 'Musique concrète - 60 years later', Paris, France, 3-7 June 2008. [essay provided personally by M. Adkins]

Bowman, D., About Ghent Altarpiece, [http:/www.aiwaz.net/about-ghent-altarpiece/a49] accessed 05 June 2009

Chion, M., Audio-Vision; sound on screen, ed., C. Gorbman, translated from French by C. Gorbman, New York: Columbia University Press, 1994

Chion, M., Guide des objets sonores, translated from French by Dack, J., North, C., [unpublished document provided by John Dack and Christine North., date unknown]

Chion, M., Guide des objets sonores; Pierre Schaeffer et la recherche musicale, 'Bibliothèque de Recherche Musicale’., Paris: Ina/Buchet-Chastel, 1983

Dictionary.com, ‘Polyptych’, [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/polyptych] accessed 01 August 2009.

Emmerson, S., 'The Relation of Language to Materials' in The Language of Electroacoustic Music, ed. S. Emmerson, Basingstoke: The Macmillan Press, 1986, pp.17-39

Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, 'Altarpiece’, [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/17531/altarpiece] accessed 01 August 2009

Fuller, D., ‘Suite’, in Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy [http://www.grovemusic.com] accessed 05 July 2009

Gerten-Jackson, C., Jan & Hubert van Eyck, [http://cgfa.sunsite.dk/eyck/ghent/index.html] accessed 17 March 2009

Livingstone, M. et al., Gilbert & George: Major Exhibition, Tate modern [catalogue], London: Tate Publishing, 2007

Meyer, L.B., Emotion and Meaning in Music, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1956, 1961

Meyer, L.B., Music, the Arts, and Ideas; Patterns and predictions in twentieth-century culture, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1967, 1994

Smalley, D., ‘Spectro-morphology and structuring processes’ in The Language of Electroacoustic Music, ed. S. Emmerson, Basingstoke: The Macmillan Press, 1986, pp.61-93

Tenney, J., & Polansky, L., 'Temporal Gestalt Perception in Music', Journal of Music Theory, vol. 24, no. 2 Durham, NC: Duke University Press/Yale Dept. of Music, 1980, pp. 205-241, JSTOR, [http://www.jstor.org/stable/843503] accessed 14th 2009

Thorpe Davie, C., Musical Structure and Design, 'The Student's Music Library', 3rd edition, London: Dobson Books ltd., 1953, 1965

Wikipedia, ‘Pythagoras’ [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagoras] accessed 01 July 2009

Wishart, T., ‘Sound symbols and Landscapes’ in The Language of Electroacoustic Music, ed. S. Emmerson, Basingstoke: The Macmillan Press, 1986, pp.41-60

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Works cited
Chion, M., La Ronde [Vinyl LP] 'Serie Gramme', France: INA-GRM, 9114 CH, 1983

Chion, M., La Tentation de Saint-Antoine / La Ronde [CD] France: INA-GRM, ina c 2002-03 cd, 1991

Dufour, D., Bocalises [CD] 'Acousma' series, France: MOTUS, M306011, 2002

Harrison, J., ...Et ainsi de suite... in ‘Articles Indéfinis’, Canada: empreintes DIGITALes, IMED 9627, 1996

Schaeffer, P., Cinq Études de Bruits in ‘L'Oeuvre Musicale’ [3xCD] France: INA-GRM/EMF, ina c 1006-07-08 cd, EMF CD 010, 1998

Schaeffer, P., et al., Étude Pathétique in l’Art de l‘étude, ‘Archives GRM’ [5xCD] France: INA-GRM, ina c 1032, 2006

Misc .1

2009-05-23T02:59:00.000-07:00

My first post; Welcome.

With the intention of presenting an amorphic, but periodical account of my work, this blog will serve as a central public reference for the details of my thoughts, theories and realizations.

For the time being, that is, after the completion of my MA, there will be little activity due to time constraints. But, please check back.

Thankyou for reading.

Adam.