(Sharbaugh)
Michael Ash Sharbaugh [ https://soundcloud.com/michael-ash-sharbaugh ]: synthesizers and sequencer programming, drums and drum machine programming, and 'found sounds'
Composed and Recorded ca. February 21, 2019.
sm3 [2023 REMASTER] [DOLBY Thunder at 23p] [__AIF].
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"As per 'Copernican,' Jonathon Keats' and Marc Weidenbaum's disquiet junto [ https://soundcloud.com/disquiet ] experimental assignment this week, "record a piece of music intended for an alien species," I opted to not spend a lot of time on the project; I opted for two to three hours, thereby removing Myself from 'romancing,' 'massaging,' and 'logisticizing' this work into a 'Western-Earth-music,' dead-end corner, thereby dismissing the call of the assignment.
I -- in My most experimental mindsets -- have always explored the time constituent of musics; that is, I have always been interested and mystified by hearing the harmonic structures, rhythms, and secret surprises that await one when music is slowed down on a tape-based recording and, albeit with sonic artifacts, time-expanded grossly.
It's inspiring to hear what lay just 'in-between the cracks' of a familiar, or unfamiliar, recording; hence, I began by creating a random short phrase of 'music' from a synth, layering it, and time-expanding it by 230%.
From there, I just flowed: I added, and subtracted, and judged, and hated on over 60% of what I laid down; it was either too 'Earth-musical,' or expected, or ubiquitous, Earth-music-wise. [LOL!!!]
I wanted to imagine, and record, what a sentient and aesthetic, alien species would consider an orchestral-trap piece of music.
As for the technical aspects of the process, I exaggerated EQ boosts and cuts, imagining that aliens' hearing apparatus might be unique from ours; I veered away from Earthly musical scales, and even-numbered time-signatures.
I did, however, realize (or, rather, assume ... [mistake?!]) that an alien species would experience the dimension of time similarly to us humans.
I named the piece after a favourite electronic music pioneer, Milton Babbitt, whom I met after His performance at Swarthmore University in the state of Pennsylvania, United States of America, in the early '90s.
Here is the result: "Babbitt ['Copernican']" ..."
~ Michael
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"More on this 373rd weekly Disquiet Junto project — Copernican Music / The Assignment: Record a piece of music intended for an alien species — at:
https://disquiet.com/0373/
This week’s project was made as a proposition by the artist Jonathon Keats.
More on the Disquiet Junto at:
https://disquiet.com/junto/
Subscribe to project announcements here:
http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/
Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:
https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0373-copernican-music/
There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.
The image associated with this project is from one of Keats’ own instruments related to his Copernican artwork, a gravitational radio. Photo credit: Dora Tsui. "
~ Marc Weidenbaum
