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by Denis Smalley |imed_0054-0001|
The idea of a principal sound source as provider of the central material
and concept unites three works on this CD, and is embodied in their titles
— Tides, Empty
Vessels, and Base Metals. In each
case a characteristic sound acts as a central reference as well as
‘irrigating’ the piece. But it also inspires and guides the
choice of other sounds and the play of relationships among them, thereby
influencing musical form. In Empty Vessels it is
the sound of air resonating in large garden pots along with recordings of the
surrounding environment. In Tides it is two water
recordings — a closely recorded water texture which furnishes the
‘pool’ sequences, and a recording of the approaching sea which
gives the second movement (Sea Flight) its wave
forms. Finally, in Base Metals, the
resonances of a family of metal sound sculptures provide the rich reservoir
of colorful sound spectra which enable harmonic and timbral evolutions.
This idea of sources and their musical development is central to the more
abstract preoccupations of the composer’s agenda, as a vehicle for
creating families of relationships, and as a means for building musical logic
and coherence. But the invisible world of acousmatic imagery also conjures up
scenes in the imagination. Such ‘scenes’ can be quite close to
reality. This is the case with Empty Vessels where
nature, environment, the elements and broad exterior spaces are graphically
featured, often without much alteration. However, recording techniques can
considerably transform our aural view of the sounds: exaggerated
magnification can turn peaceful bees into a threatening swarm, or allow us to
perceive the finer timbral changes of raindrops falling on a hollow ceramic
pot. Empty Vessels can be
regarded a series of episodes which have a visual and experiential logic as a
well as making musical sense. This is the closest my music gets to
composition based on the soundscape. In Tides the water-based
proposition is clear enough, but the more literal references are left behind
as the concepts of ‘pool,’ ‘current,’ and wave-shaped
morphologies are developed more abstractly. With Pentes the
only clear link with the real world is the Northumbrian pipes, and so this
piece is only scenic by analogy and metaphor — its spectral energies
and motions. With Base Metals, too, the
imagery is evoked by spaces and motion, quite remote from reality, although
the energetic metallic impacts, which act as reference-points, are a type of
sound we are all familiar with.
Quite noticeable in all these works is the absence of a human presence in
the sonic fabric. With the exception of the pipes in Pentes, a
few distant traces of human activity near the start of Empty
Vessels, and possibly some reminders of instrumentally instigated timbres
in Base Metals, the
listener-spectator is left to observe and experience the scenes and spaces,
alone. Between and beyond the loudspeakers virtual, metaphorical worlds
approach and encroach in sonic flow, and are revealed for imaginative
contemplation.
Denis Smalley, London
(England, UK) [xi-00]
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