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Why Remaster Old Works? (Seuil de silences)
by Paul Dolden |imed_0369-0002|
In the late 1970’s I started to write and produce music involving hundreds
of parts or tracks. In the early days, the analogue recording medium was very
noisy when bouncing (or premixing) tracks together. Things improved
throughout the 1980’s and ’90’s, but a large multitrack digital tape recorder
was still out of my financial reach. By the late 1990’s the new computer and
hard drive speeds finally provided me with an affordable multitrack solution.
For the first time in my life I was able to achieve the balance between
individual voices that I had so carefully notated in the original scores. I
achieved further musical clarity and a new depth of sound by using quality
compression, equalisation and reverb. To remaster, I went back to the
individual tracks. This was a huge undertaking. For example, a piece like
Below the Walls of Jericho (1988-89) may be only 14
minutes and 30 seconds long, but it is a large tape work comprising eighty
hours of original recorded materials.
Recordings always ‘freeze’ or crystallise musical and spectral meaning for
the listener. An odd sound combination that you have grown fond of in the old
master may not appear in the same way in the new one. However, I think you
will agree that I have stayed true to the original compositions. I resisted
changing any of my original compositional decisions on the three tape works
originally released on the 1990 CD The Threshold of Deafening
Silence (Tronia, TRD 0190).
I invite you to discover many new levels of meaning and clarity in the new
masters, which are much closer to my original artistic intention.
Paul Dolden [x-03]
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Introduction
by Paul Dolden |imed_0369-0005|
The creation of the solo tape compositions involves the composition of
several hundred simultaneous musical parts or lines on large manuscript
paper. Each part or line is individually performed on an acoustic instrument
and recorded. Once all several hundred parts have been individually recorded,
they are digitally mixed together with usually no, or very little, signal
processing or electronic effects. This working method allows for new and
complex polyrhythmic and microtonal tuning relationships between parts that
could never be performed by a live ensemble. This compositional technique
also allows for unique orchestration and density possibilities that can be
constantly transformed.
In creating these works for soloist(s) and tape, many details of the tape
become masked by the soloist’s sound. However, by being able to clearly hear
one part, one gains a new perspective on my sound world, as the solo line
often highlights fairly hidden musical gestures and directions. Moreover, one
has the wonderful contrast between the tape, in which hundreds of musical
parts often create anonymous massed textural effects, and hearing the
soloist(s) with all their subjectivity, subtlety and detail they bring.
Paul Dolden [x-03]
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electrocd.com Paul
Dolden: Seuil de silences (CD): liner notes
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