music
This week I've been revisiting the work of Danish composer Per Nørgård as part of a broader exploration into different approaches to algorithmic composition. Specifically, I’m looking at his infinity series (a technique for generating a constantly-evolving self-similar set of numbers that bears resemblance to fractal geometry) and digging into its potential for generative music and art.
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In honor of 808 day, here are eight algorithmically-generated beats created using Lindenmeyer Systems. The L-System code was written in Supercollider, and it uses a set of rules to generate rhythmic patterns. Each pattern uses a different set of rules. The generated patterns are self-similar, so unique rhythmic motives recur in each of beats, but the rules are complex enough that the patterns never sound repetitive.
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I’m in the very early stages of making a new music-dance film that (like so much of my other work) explores memory and nostalgia. Last week I had a test shoot with collaborators Bri George and Rachel Malehorn (dancers) and videographer Michael Marten. Watch the test footage and read more about the process here.
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This week's Disquiet Junto coincided with me re-reading Jonathan Sterne's excellent book, The Audible Past: The Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction. In it, Sterne traces the pre-history of sound reproducing technology and demonstrates that each new technology was less a brand new era in human development, but rather a new way to meet an old desire. Examining the cultural forces that led to these developments in sound technology really does feel like studying pre-history, because the mediums themselves very quickly took on a life of their own and created their own set of new desires, as Marshall McLuhan repeatedly observed.
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Things got a little funky today. Went a little crazy with the finger drumming and one thing led to another…
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Simple arrangement and adaptation of piece XXVI in Béla Bartók's "Music for Children." Sounds like springtime.
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