1-Bit Symphony is unique because it is being released as a live album. [...]]]> For the past few days, the internet has been all aflutter about Tristan Perich’s new album, 1-Bit Symphony. The album combines an aesthetic awareness that will appeal to intellectual musicians, and catchy uptempo synth lines that will appeal to everyone.

1-Bit Symphony is unique because it is being released as a live album. The entire album is played by a small circuit that fits inside a jewel case. When you turn the circuit on, it actually performs the album live. This all works into Perich’s aesthetic, which he explains in this video.

Tristan Perich’s 1-Bit Symphony is an electronic composition in five movements on a single microchip. Though housed in a CD jewel case, 1-Bit Symphony is not a recording in the traditional sense; it literally “performs” its music live when turned on. A complete electronic circuit programmed by the artist and assembled by hand plays the music through a headphone jack mounted into the case itself.

A return to the format of Perich’s lauded 1-Bit Music (described by the Village Voice as “technology and aesthetic rolled into one”), 1-Bit Symphony further reduces the hardware involved while simultaneously expanding its musical ideas. 1-Bit Symphony utilizes on and off electrical pulses, synthesized by assembly code and routed from microchip to speaker, to manifest data as sound. The device treats electricity as a sonic medium, making an intimate connection between the materiality of hardware and the abstract logic of software.

While 1-Bit Symphony is purely electronic in its execution, its contents reflect Perich’s long-standing interest in orchestral composition. Since the release of 1-Bit Music in 2006, Perich’s compositional work has combined 1-bit audio with acoustic classical instruments, providing insight into the conceptual and aesthetic relationships between physical and electronic sound. With 1-Bit Symphony, Perich brings this insight back into the digital realm, juxtaposing the grand form of a classical symphony with the minimal nature of 1-bit circuitry. [1]

It is also worth perusing Perich’s 2006 album, 1-Bit Music, and his live music on youtube.

Notes

1. http://bangonacan.org/store/product/181 Accessed on 6/9/10

In the interview, we talk about the group’s creative process, and how the four composers work as an ensemble. McKinley elaborates on the surprises and enlightening moments that occur when improvising with computers.

Listen [...]]]> Today I caught up with Elliot Miles McKinley, one of the members of the electroacoustic imrpovisation group earWorm.

In the interview, we talk about the group’s creative process, and how the four composers work as an ensemble. McKinley elaborates on the surprises and enlightening moments that occur when improvising with computers.

Listen to the Computer Music Blog interview with Elliot Miles McKinley of earWorm.

Baffin Bay [...]]]> Adam Scott Neal recently sent me an email about his latest release, Parallel Lives. Neal is one of the few young composers who has really made his presence felt in the recent computer music scene. In his latest release, he continues to show why his music is performed so often.

Baffin Bay is one of the highlights from Parallel Lives.

The program notes on Baffin Bay:

BAFFIN BAY is a body of water between Greenland and Baffin Island, Canada. Near the Arctic Ocean, it is a cold, forbidding, but beautiful place. I have never visited, but I have long been fascinated by the arctic seascape and its indigenous wildlife. This relaxed and contemplative work was written for laptop quartet, and each player is assigned two instruments for a total of eight unique instruments. The form is based around four quartets featuring different combinations of these instruments, as well as duos and trios building up to and receding from these quartets. The players improvise within a structure that determines who will play at a given time, and what pitches will be present at that time.

This version was performed and edited by myself, and can be heard on my new album PARALLEL LIVES. This video features some related computer paintings, which I made with ArtRage.

Later this week, I’m going to get Adam on the phone to discuss his new music.