Phantasmagoria

Why piano

Initially interested in synthesized sounds, I was eventually drawn to the piano because of its simplicity of sound. I began creating works specifically focusing on pitch and rhythm instead of thicker synthesized sounds concentrating on texture.

The piano sample used throughout Phantasmagoria is plastic and straightforward, very flat with little inherent emotion or quality. I would say the piano is the most basic possible instrument, allowing me to focus exclusively on form.

Process

Extremely open-ended. Many songs begin with a sequence of rhythmic experiments and permutations. Occasionally I will work in a different way: I will set up a system of instructions or governing laws to define the pattern. And then use this system to arrive at musical phrases. I may write an extremely long, drawn-out body of work and then condense it. Often imagining the same phrase in a number of different ways, then picking a single permutation to build the song around.

This is almost like creating a world and then photographing it. Creating a world of sound and then cutting out islands here and there and connecting the islands with bridges.

Working on the computer allows me to understand music visually and tactilely—it is not ephemeral music. For me, it is just as much an object as an experience. And I do try to write music that transcends into objecthood. The third movement of Beethoven’s Sonata No. 14 inspired me as a visual artist for this reason. To me, it seemed to transcend melody and become a physical object. As a sculptor and painter, this movement provided formal inspiration and continues to do so as a musician.

Human in the Digital Age and Limitless Potential

The work considers the stark counterpoint between the digital performer/instrument, the organic mind that creates, and the organic mind that listens (to the finished music). It is all about the experience of the organic individual within the digital use of the computer is the use of the final tool. After the singularity, all inventions, all music etc.… will be created by computers. The next tool, artificial intelligence, will transcend AI and be the last human creation.

Much of my process is only possible because of the computer’s limitless potential: the absence of physical limitations through the computer. 

Inspiration from Natural Phenomenon

Theoretical physics. Especially quantum physics: wave particle duality. I like to understand layered notes as superpositioned phrases, creating an interference pattern. Phrases phasing in and out of synch—considering waves in the electromagnetic spectrum or a swimming pool. The double slit quantum eraser experiment and its implication of consciousness.Emergence phenomenon. Unique phenomenon emerges from outside entities. Consciousness is emergent from non-conscious particles. This correlates to “music” emerging from a swarm of notes.

The emergence of music out of single notes reflects the emergence of the mind out of particles. I find that these inspirations coalesce into a kind of scientific romanticism. Theoretical physics, theories of consciousness, and emergence are to me as the landscape is to Rousseau. The incomprehensibility of the universe as the sublime, which I process through music.

Inspirations from Culture and Society

Information overload. I am interested in overstimulation in current society. Resulting in positive (as in +, not as in “right” or “just”) censorship—where nothing is censored, but less powerful voices and ideas cannot be heard over the din—exploring overstimulation and information density through the music. Not specifically as critique, however, and just as important as exploring the beauty and sublime of the stimulation overload. Formally this mirrors the minimalist obsession with the negative (American academic minimalism, house music, most philosophies and religions encouraging serene contemplation as means to understanding).

Influence of Minimalism

Influence of John Cage and the other “spiritual” and minimalist composers such as Reich, Riley, and Glass. I sometimes share their goal of spiritual experience or deep indescribable understanding through music; however, the means are often reversed: Constant change as opposed to repetition, and positive space as opposed to negative space to catapult/blast the listener to the “divine”/transcendental experience/abstract knowledge, understanding. Regarding maximalism, I take inspiration from old harpsichord music: Scarlatti; and Geminiani. And from medieval choral music, which is also “spiritual” music and functions through a kind of spiraling, discombobulating mist of sound.

Influence of Visual Art

Instruction-based art—Sol Lewitt. Here there is a substantial overlap with Terry Riley. He was strongly influenced by Abstract Expressionism and Automatic Drawing—de Kooning, Gorky, and Pollock.

Exploring Authenticity

Sampled piano sound, coupled with quantized computer performance. The music is sculpted to sound spontaneous. Here I also consider the Abstract Expressionists and how they labored over a piece to make it appear random.

Concerning Pop and the Incomprehensibility of the Universe 

I do admire how pop does get to the point very quickly. However, I dislike how it repeats that point repeatedly and how easily the music can be understood. The more I learn about physics, the more incomprehensible the universe appears—I think my music reflects this so that the incomprehensibility of reality can be communicated.

In writing this album, I was interested in creating music that I couldn’t understand so easily.

I generally find pop music to be prudish, like music with its clothes on. It makes people complacent on a deep unconscious level and can stagnate the individual and society. It can become a resignation to the mundane. Unadventurous.

Concerning Classical and New Music

Like popular music, I want my music to get right to the point. I often think sections of New Music composition are profound, but I often find that they are sandwiched between areas of low density and waiting. I wanted to make music that only dealt with the dense and profound. I investigate formal concepts from the past. Covering themes of cultural inheritance and how form and meaning change alongside cultural context. IN WAVES (song)

Here I am explicitly exploring the counterpoint between the digital and the organic—the organic human mind in the digital world. One piano part is computerized, has perfect time, and deals with incredible subtlety. The other piano is freehand, one take. The Human voice as the self in the center—one take by the composer, not comped or overdubbed except for the backing vocals.