[Primal electrons] Passanten (ogg)

Sam_Zen · February 11, 2009, 00:01:18

A serial composition.
Passanten - 5:30

This is a very visionary text by Francis Bacon, The New Atlantis, 1624.

Wee have also Sound-houses, wher we practise and demonstrate all Sounds, and the Generation.
Wee have harmonies which you have not, of Quarter-Sounds, and lesser Slides of Sounds.
Diverse Instruments of Musick likewise to you unknowne, some sweeter than any you have; Together with Bells and Rings that are dainty and sweet.
Wee represent Small Sounds as well as Great and Deepe; Likewise Great Sounds, Extenuate and Sharpe;
Wee make diverse Tremblings and Warblings of Sounds, which in their Originalle are Entire.
Wee represent and imitate all Articulate Sounds and Letters, and the Voices and Notes of Beasts and Birds.
Wee have certain Helps, which sett to the Eare doe further the Hearing greatly.
Wee have also diverse Strange and Artificiall Echos's, Reflecting the Voice many times, and as it were Tossing it:
And some that give back the Voice lowder than it come, some Shriller, some Deeper; Yea some rendering the Voice,
Differing in the letters or Articulate Sound, from that they receyve,
Wee have also means to convey Sounds in Trunks and Pipes, in strange Lines, and Distances.

uncloned · February 11, 2009, 16:49:58

The text is incredible for the 16 hundreds indeed.

I've listened about 4 times at lunch here. This piece can be best described as a journey through futuristic places.
It sounds as if you are using "pure" scales built from the harmonic series in places. (2:20 or so for example)

Another impression is that it would serve well as the sound accompaniment for an exhibition of modern sculpture.

What does the title mean?

uncloned · February 11, 2009, 16:50:49

Quote from: "uncloned"The text is incredible for the 16 hundreds indeed.

I've listened about 4 times at lunch here. This piece can be best described as a journey through futuristic places.
It sounds as if you are using "pure" scales built from the harmonic series in places. (2:20 or so for example) I like it very much - this one is more of an agreeable bend than some of your other work (like the train sequences).

Another impression is that it would serve well as the sound accompaniment for an exhibition of modern sculpture.

What does the title mean?

BooT-SectoR-ViruZ · February 11, 2009, 20:24:50

Quote from: "uncloned"
What does the title mean?

that's german (as well as dutch) and means 'passersby'

Sam_Zen · February 12, 2009, 00:37:43

To BSV : nice explanation, I was searching for that.
This is the basic composition idea going on : walking down a road, people passing by, each with their own running story. You're confronted with it for a moment, coming closer, then it fades away again. So it's serial in time, no pattern returns.

uncloned · February 12, 2009, 00:44:56

did you use any special scales in here that you know of?
a couple parts sounded especially consonant.

psishock · February 12, 2009, 01:08:39

What is the relation of the text and what i'm hearing? I cannot get that one.

I love the intro part, as a person is having a dream, but at 01:19 the phone suddenly starts to ring and he was forced to wake up, but not really willing to. Then the day starts as usual...

Harbinger · February 15, 2009, 17:22:58

What an interesting and premonitious verse by Bacon. What was the context of that poem? Was one nation bragging to another nation about their culture? It's wildly interesting, because that fantastic notion is now our reality....
Anyway, on with the critique!

--------------------------
Notes as i'm listening:

Webern meets Debussy meets Kraftwerk. This is classic avant-garde electronic. The title alone is Impressionist, but the sounds are minimalist, with an electronic stew of sonic units and scents. Every sound, like people in a crowd as you watch them passing outside the window next to your table, is part of a collection, a menagerie of styles and origins; every one an entity unto themselves, yet part of a larger entity, that one can label -- Passenten...

Sam_Zen · February 15, 2009, 23:20:19

Your notes are quite to the point, Harbinger.

2 Clones - no special scales, at least not on purpose.

This work is one of the few I made, having a predefined description for, as how to make it.
At that time I gave lectures in a studio for electronic music about 'listening' and 'electronic solfege', and this is probably my only piece,
also performed by somebody else, one of my students in that year.
I made this with the EMS VCS3, the student made the piece for a school concert using the ARP 2600.
Although the outcome had very different sounds, the overall idea of the composition gave the same impression.

Score was quite simple :
- Turn all output volume of sources at zero, so you can't monitor what's happening.
- Choose some modules in the soundpatch, give pots a random turn up or down, switch some switches, slide some sliders, change some clockspeed.
- Stop fiddling, then slowly fade in what sounds are produced by the system, and fade out again after a while.
- Use a piece of silence before repeating this process.
- Record this and dub it, without hearing the previous recorded material.

Sam_Zen · November 15, 2009, 09:49:37

I made a fresh mixed version of this track, can be found here
A notation which I forgot in the score :
The speed of the actual sequence may be altered during the recording.

uncloned · November 15, 2009, 16:09:48

excellent!

I have to listen side by side to catch differences - February was a while ago.

However it is an excellent piece!

Nahkranoth · November 16, 2009, 08:24:54

Mr Bacon was using VST of course :lol:
Gotta listen to this new version for sure.