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LP+CD
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HH 04230753LP
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"METASTABILITY was composed and performed on the 1975 La Trobe Serge 'Paperface', a colossal modular synthesizer designed by Serge Tcherepnin, currently housed at the Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio (MESS), Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. The fruits of two residencies at MESS in 2019 and 2021, METASTABILITY explores some of the vast sonic terrain of this unique machine across its five tracks. The Serge was commissioned for the La Trobe University Music Department in the mid-1970s by composer Warren Burt and has since been restored by renowned Serge expert Ken Stone. Affectionately dubbed 'Paperface' due to the characteristic paper graphics used on its front panels, the La Trobe Serge is one of three instruments designed by Tcherepnin to make its way to Australia during this period. The La Trobe Serge is a beautiful, complex instrument. At the core of Tcherepnin's design philosophy is the concept of 'patch programmability', where low-level functions of the instrument are made available to the musician. This approach pushes the performer to define and re-define the scope of the instrument's architecture as part of the compositional process. In my encounters with the Serge, I experience the instrument as an electronic ecosystem, one that makes me work hard for every sound, but always in collaboration with the machine. What fascinates me most about working on the Serge is this sense of human/non-human collaboration. As a patch begins to grow in complexity, I'm acutely aware that my compositional decisions are not solely my own. They've become part of a sprawling human-machine network, the history of which sits in front of me as an imposing tangle of patch cables. In METASTABILITY, I was interested in exploring this relationship, resulting in sounds and processes that push and pull on each other, moving in and out of equilibrium. Apparent Equilibrium, the bonus CD included in this release, documents a live recording made on the La Trobe Serge at MESS in July 2022. Extending upon sounds and ideas from METASTABILITY, this recording was made in preparation for an octophonic surround sound performance at The Substation (Naarm/Melbourne), as part of Sonorous V, curated by MESS. Piloted through some custom software, the performance weaves in live Serge with pre-recorded materials from METASTABILITY, diffused in a virtual surround-sound environment. As this CD was mixed for binaural playback, please use headphones for an optimal listening experience." --Ben Carey
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LP
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HH 3190749LP
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Ben Carey is a Sydney-based saxophonist, composer and technologist. His practice is profoundly informed and extended by technology, through the creation of audio-visual works, the development of his interactive performance software: _derivations and more recently, his fixation on modular synthesis. Ben's work is driven by a fascination with the symbiotic relationships that develop between human and machine in composition and performance. His work has been performed and exhibited at numerous national and international festivals. He is also a serial collaborator, working regularly with artists/ensembles such as Zubin Kanga, Joshua Hyde, Ollie Bown (Tangents), Sonya Holowell, Kusum Normoyle, Alon Ilsar, Sydney Chamber Opera, and others.
"The three pieces on this record are the result of live interactions with complex and unwieldy networks of electricity, realized on a small Eurorack modular synthesizer system in the studio sometime between late 2017-mid 2018. Over the past few years this instrument has become a core part of my musical practice. For me, working with a modular synthesizer is about experiencing musical composition as an interactive process, where the lines between sound design, composition and improvisation are enticingly hazy. The first two pieces are edited from longer improvised sessions on the instrument. 'Peaks' evolves from a single, restless microtonal line into a sea of metallic resonances and unstable bass snarls. Named after the Danish physicist Søren Absalon Larsen, the second work explores a gestural language based around audio-feedback, the acoustic phenomenon he discovered. Feeding the outputs of filters, oscillators and amplifier circuits back into their inputs, 'Larsen' exploits the resultant textural, timbral and rhythmic instability of these chaotic vibrations. Finally, the long-form improvisation 'Networks Articulated' drives relentlessly forward through active surface textures to arrive at a monolithic, suspended noise-scape woven from un-synced oscillators, swirling filters and crackling analog noise." --Ben Carey
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