Michael ZT Rose

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 pieces 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 piece 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.

The human in the digital age

The work considers the stark counterpoint between the digital performer and instrument, the organic mind that creates, and the organic mind that listens. It is all about the experience of the organic individual within the digital. Much of my process is only possible because of the computer’s limitless potential, the absence of physical limitations.

Inspiration from natural phenomena

Theoretical physics, especially quantum physics and 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 in a swimming pool. The double-slit quantum eraser experiment and its implication for consciousness.

Emergence phenomena: unique phenomena emerge 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.

Inspiration from culture and society

Information overload. I am interested in overstimulation in current society, resulting in positive censorship, where nothing is censored but less powerful voices and ideas cannot be heard over the din. I explore overstimulation and information density through the music, not specifically as critique, and just as much to explore the beauty and sublimity of stimulation overload. Formally this mirrors the minimalist obsession with the negative: American academic minimalism, house music, and most philosophies and religions that encourage serene contemplation as a means to understanding.

The influence of minimalism

The 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, positive space as opposed to negative space, to catapult the listener toward the transcendental. 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 spiralling, discombobulating mist of sound.

The influence of visual art

Instruction-based art, Sol LeWitt. Here there is a substantial overlap with Terry Riley, who 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 laboured over a piece to make it appear random.

On pop, and the incomprehensibility of the universe

I do admire how pop gets to the point very quickly. However, I dislike how it repeats that point over and over, 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.

On 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 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

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 sits at the centre as the self: one take by the composer, not comped or overdubbed except for the backing vocals.

— Michael ZT Rose