Chromatic Currents Part I is a generative music piece driven by particles floating in a liquid. No intervention in particle behavior occurred while the piece was being performed using the GMS. The scale was strongly C minor pentatonic, weighted with a Dorian mode by adding less-likely probabilities for D and A. However, every note that was not part of the scale still had a small possibility of occurring. This led to occasional blue or dissonant pitches in the sequence. The possibility of occurrences for any note within a twelve tone chromatic scale led me to the title.
Using a variety of processing techniques I was able to turn several percussion samples into haunting melodic phrases. A few of these phrases are the main themes in this piece from my solo album, Precambrian Resonance by Ostraka (Unearthed Music, 2009). I’m also using Rhodes electric piano that I ran through time expansion and other effects in order to create a slightly warped and distorted tone quality.
Josh Clos produced this documentary short about the GMS recently. He and his colleagues Julie Kistler and Brian Smith shot video during my performance in Downtown Minneapolis with Minneapolis Art on Wheels on May 13, 2009. Later Josh interviewed me in the audio studio at Art Institutes Minnesota where I teach interactive media and audio production. As a student in my audio production class, Josh edited the sound and video together with minimal input from myself. His short illustrates what the GMS does and how I’ve been using it to compose music in real-time.
Examples of work in sound, imagery, and interaction
Using a variety of processing techniques I was able to turn several percussion samples into haunting melodic phrases. A few of these phrases are the main themes in this piece from my solo album,