The music for Patina was created for a collaborative installation with the visual artist Barbara Freeman. From the outset of the project we agreed that the installation would focus on metallic surfaces and objects. These items provided a shared ‘resonance’ which on one hand creates the surface detail of Barbara’s visual work and on the other hand created the timbral detail of the electroacoustic music.
My piece explores these sounds by transforming them into long lines which reveal the inner spectral qualities of their sources. A cracked bell-like object is struck and frozen in time just after the attack of the sound has ceased; a rusted beer keg which was scraped with a wooden stick becomes stretched twenty or thirty times its duration and reveals sonic details which would otherwise pass unnoticed. All these sounds are mixed in a slow-moving collage. The rate of change mirrors the stretched nature of many of the transformations and the ear should be drawn to the subtle shifts of colour.
Most of the sound materials for this piece were recorded around the farm buildings and outhouses at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Annaghmakerrig. They were transformed using the advanced computer facilities at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver and later mixed using the studio facilities at Queen’s University. The piece was premiered in the Ormeau Baths Gallery on 14 May 1998.
My piece explores these sounds by transforming them into long lines which reveal the inner spectral qualities of their sources. A cracked bell-like object is struck and frozen in time just after the attack of the sound has ceased; a rusted beer keg which was scraped with a wooden stick becomes stretched twenty or thirty times its duration and reveals sonic details which would otherwise pass unnoticed. All these sounds are mixed in a slow-moving collage. The rate of change mirrors the stretched nature of many of the transformations and the ear should be drawn to the subtle shifts of colour.
Most of the sound materials for this piece were recorded around the farm buildings and outhouses at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Annaghmakerrig. They were transformed using the advanced computer facilities at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver and later mixed using the studio facilities at Queen’s University. The piece was premiered in the Ormeau Baths Gallery on 14 May 1998.
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