What most attracts me to…
by Denis Smalley |imed_0894-0001|
What most attracts me to the music of Theodore Lotis
is his mastery of the spatial image. This is not so much to do with
constructing perspective — relations between near and far, or the
movement of sound across the stereo field — but with the nature of the
textural fabric, how he deploys his sounds in spectral space. The spectral
texture is distributed in multiple registers. Layers interact, come and go,
relate sympathetically, or pressurise each other as they seek their place, or
move on. Our mental image of space and spaciousness gathers over time as we
observe these behaviours, as we absorb the accumulation of microcosmic
detail.
For Theodore Lotis, the
distribution of sounds over spectral space and across time creates a diffused
ambient space, in much the same way as natural light does. So ideas about
luminosity — of brightness, transparency, opacity — are
influential in developing the spatial image. I think for example, of the more
opaque bass registers which not only give depth to a texture but, in their
continuity, suggest broad expanses. Then there are the pulses and pulsations,
particles and impulses, which form the microcosm. These are much more
luminous, inhabiting higher, elevated registers. And we must not forget the
gravitational glissandi, whose energetic forces propel us through spectral
space, or in their gentler motion suggest aerial images. I am conscious, too,
of a sensitivity to pitch and harmony which are sometimes the scaffolding on
which a texture relies, providing points of reference for departure or
arrival, and for navigation through spectral space.
Although there are traces of known sounds, not always firmly identifiable,
and although the metaphors revealed in works’ titles evoke the spaces
of natural phenomena like water, wind, air and light, we do not remain
anchored in our world. This music seeks to transport us to an imagined,
highly expressive, other-worldliness.
Denis Smalley, London
(England, UK) [ii-08]
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