Re: [microsound] microsound kiosk

[Christos Carras <ear@xxxxxxxxx>]

"About 'analysis - resynthesis': there's is a school of composers,
 the so-called 'spectralists', who are very thorough in this
 approach. The idea is that one analyzes a sound, usually that
 of an acoustic instrument (mind you, these are 'decent composers'),
 and re-orchestrate this again with other instruments.
 In general, one can say that the theory is much more exciting
 than the result...."

Indeed, i remember hearing pieces by Grisey (for example) or Murail (i
think) back in the '80s (getting on i guess...) that were engaging in an
acoustic sense but were somehow elevating an acoustic "hard fact" into a
compositional intention.

i feel that the major difference between the spectral school and applying
lpc techniques for example lies in the notion of "manipulation": the
reduction of everything to binary bits and bytes that are maleable as data
and allow a hybridisation of identities (e.g. morphing). personally i am
ambivalent about this: on the one hand i find it amazingly rich in potential
and also philosophicaly interesting to apply the deconstruction of
homogeneous identity to sound. on the other hand i can't help thinking that
there is something about these processes that ties them in with other - less
savoury - dimensions of contemporary human practice that also depend on
"manipulation" of identity e.g. genetically modified organisms.

this is still a bit fuzzy in my mind, but i relate this commonality of
approach to the notion of magma developed by Castoriades in the opening
sections of "the imaginary institution of society" (if that's the right
english title)

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