notes on sleepMusic for Slovenia (2014)

 

The 3 movement, 120 minute piece, sleepMusic for Slovenia was written for live broadcast for the RadioCona festival in Ljubljana, Slovenia, for City at Night curated by Anna Friz.

 

Parts of the piece were created using a patch I programmed for max/msp that I'm calling a modularLooper (see the screenshot). The patch was designed to sample previously recorded tracks or live input into one or all of a series of seven audio buffers. These buffers can be played back at any speed; 0.5 would create a slow, lower pitched sound, 14 would sound frenzied fast and high pitched, and 237 times faster changes the material to something entirely different. In addition to variation in speed, each channel also has a dedicated low frequency oscillator (LFO) for manipulating that channels volume (amplitude). It is with those LFO's that I can create very oddly metered phasing of the various channels. For example the soundscapes that resemble electronic cicadas were created with each channels set at a high speed and each LFO set at a different low speed (under one cycle per second).

 

The other prominent sound in sleepMusic for Slovenia is an arch-top guitar recorded in a partially enclosed patio in Florida. I prepared the guitar with various metal objects, bells and sticks. Improvising in my best attempt at an outsider/folk approach, I made the recordings with the idea that they would be partially a recording of a guitar and partially a field recording of a Florida evening.