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Matthew Davidson  

#5

Duration: 06' 00" Year: 1991
analogue tape piece

• Programme Note

  This “reverse theme and variations” was realized in Studio B of the Experimental Music Studiols at University of Illinois, Urbana, USA. Distorted beyond recognition, and then increased in speed to the point of white noise, the “theme” or sound source is revealed in the final moments. And, as should be the case, John Barrymore has the last word.

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  • Stolen Music - New Compositions by Matthew Davidson  

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  • Stolen Music - Chamber and Electronic Music by Matthew Davidson  Year: 1996 

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Jordan Reyne  

a message

Duration: 06' 00" Year: 2002
electroacoustic

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  • Dr. Kevorkian & the Suicide Machine - 'The Loneliest of Creatures'  Year: 2002 

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Anton Killin  

A Priori

Duration: 06' 00" Year: 2008
electroacoustic

• Programme Note

  The term “a priori” in philosophy refers to that which is already known or presupposed before any kind of inquiry has taken place.

  This piece organises vocal sounds into a specific trajectory and juxtaposes these sounds with electronically manipulated material and recordings of nature and machinery. I recorded speakers of various languages – Polish (Andrzej Nowicki), Japanese (Andy Tate), Russian (Liz Platova), French (Clare Tattersall), Luo (Beryl Matete), English (myself), Dutch and German (Duncan Nairn). These languages were ‘altered’ during the recording process to accommodate the trajectory (from vowel sounds to whole words to consonant sounds to percussive voice sounds to breath sounds) and thus, while the grammar structures of each language still inform the ‘words’ of its speaker, the original meaning of word-combinations is tainted and often lost.

  Much of the electronic sounds were created from these voice recordings. Moreover, a lot of only subtle electronic embellishment was employed at times – an aesthetic decision that ‘holds back’ on many opportunities to modify sounds and thus foregrounds the inverted linguistic function of the spoken languages into a purely aural sensation by presenting the recordings as they are, often without electronic manipulation.

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  • Anton Killin: A Priori 

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  • Killin: A Priori; DATA files 

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Chris Cree Brown  

Aeolian Harp Sounds

Duration: 07' 00"
electroacoustic

• Programme Note

  ‘Aeolian Harp Sounds’:
  In 1999, I designed an Aeolian Harp within a sculpture that would assist the wind flow across the strings, and provide a suitable resonant space in which people could enjoy the sounds. In 2000, I constructed a small working model for display in the Christchurch Botanical Gardens as part of ‘Scape: New Zealand Community Trust Art + Industry’ Urban Arts Biennial 2002.

  Aeolian Harps are magical instruments played by the wind. Traditionally, all the strings are tuned to the same pitch, but on this recording the strings have been tuned randomly. The variety of sounds that an Aeolian Harp can produce is astonishing: always ethereal and beautiful. I have been elated with the success of the project and the response from the public. Both the sounds of the harp and the instrument itself seem to have a cognisant persona that has lead me on a spellbinding journey for the last twenty-five years.

  Over this time, I have developed the design to include several unique innovations such as bridges that allow the strings to lie perpendicular to the soundboard as opposed to parallel to it. In some ways, I feel that as a composer, this is the first project where I have had some real communication with the community. in other ways, however, I often feel that it is not I doing the communicating: rather it is Gaia or some undefined sentient energy that embodies the earth. All I have done is simply construct a device that ‘unlocks’ these sounds. To me, this is why the sounds have such a magical, even spiritual quality. These sounds are best played softly.

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  • New Zealand Sonic Art Vol. III 

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John Rimmer  

An Inner Voice

Duration: 08' 00" Year: 1991
electroacoustic work

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  • John Rimmer: Fleeting Images  Year: 1993 

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Matthew Davidson  

Between the Lines

Duration: 07' 45" Year: 1988
Analog tape piece

• Programme Note

  This work uses, as its sound source, an array of human voices, all of which are deceased political and/or historical figures. It is not intended to be entirely comprehensible at a first hearing as I wished to convey, in part, our cultural over-stimulation in comparison to say, 100 years ago. Musically, it is shaped as a canon, and (taking my inspiration from a comment by Dylan Thomas to the effect that what originally attracted him to language was not its meaning but its sound) I have assembled increasingly fragmented parts of speeches into a confusing labyrinth which will hopefully stimulate harsh emotion. How’s that for a run-on sentence!

  Between the Lines was realized at the Electronic Music Studios at the University of Toronto, and re-mastered in Studio A of the Experimental Music Studios, University of Illinois, Urbana, United States.

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  • Stolen Music - New Compositions by Matthew Davidson  

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  • Stolen Music - Chamber and Electronic Music by Matthew Davidson  Year: 1996 

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Lissa Meridan  

Blaze

Duration: 06' 00" Year: 2000
electroacoustic

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  • NZ Women Composers Vol. 2 

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  • Meridan: Selected electroacoustic works 1999-2002 

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  • Lissa Meridan: Electroacoustic Works 

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  • New Zealand Sonic Art 2000  Year: 2000 

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David Hamilton  

Blow Up

Duration: 05' 00" Year: 1980
for tape

Norman Skipp  

Brittle

Duration: 08' 39" Year: 1999
electroacoustic

• Programme Note

  Brittle formed part of the Safe In Sound mixed media work.

Philip Brownlee  

Cat, Dog, Pie

Duration: 08' 00"
electroacoustic work

• Programme Note

  While making this piece, I was enthralled by my daughter’s experimentation with language, at the age of nineteen months. Recognisable English words were freely mingled with streams of idiosyncratic verbal utterance, and while meaning was often obscure to adult ears, patterns of words and sounds were repeated in a way that was clearly linguistic. The title of the piece is one of these patterns, which she used frequently, and which I am still unable to translate. To me, such playfulness suggests musical processes. Almost from birth, the toys which most held her attention were those which made sounds. In response to this, I had recorded a collection of the toys which had most fascinated her around the age of seven months. Nearly a year later, the sounds finally accumulated into a musical shape. I can only dream of recapturing for myself the inventiveness of a young child, but the observation of the child’s manipulation of sound and meaning leaves its traces in my work.

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  • Philip Brownlee: Cat, Dog, Pie; audio 

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  • Philip Brownlee: Cat, Dog, Pie 

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  • 4th Generation: Lilburn Electroacoustic Music Studios 

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