#$XXXXX!/#*$ - (Numbers 1-7)

 

#$XXXXX!/#*$ is a series of releases between 2021 and 2023 investigating the translation of embodied musical timing across digital mediums and genres. Releases include work for hardware electronics, IDM, MIDI-based gamelan, handmade instruments, and harsh noise, embedded in the musical context of pandemic-era Denpasar, Bali.

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This first release from the series opens with four 20-30 second tracks, each outlining one of the record's primary influences (grindcore, gamelan, harsh noise, and experimental electronic), before progressively smearing each of these together into a new, unified language. The entire release was composed spontaneously via vocal and body-percussion improvisation, then translated to MIDI and reconstituted using samples and software synths.

 

A primary goal was to investigate the way hybrid genre can emerge in a specific time and place through absorption. If the original genres become part of a performer's acculturation, their improvisations may eventually contain traces of each of these without conscious effort, with the various musical elements put to work collectively to describe the present moment.

 

For the initial improvisation, I began by focusing on each genre influence separately, then allowed them to gradually bleed together. Limiting myself to my voice and my hands assisted in the blending process by preventing me from doing too many things simultaneously. Eventually, common rhythmic characteristics of each began to merge within my phrasing, enabling further blending via the translation process. The choice of sounds reflect the materials and musical context of my surroundings in Denpasar, addressing time and place via spontaneous genre hybridization.

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This project is deeply indebted to the experimental, noise, electronic, and gamelan communities of the region during the pandemic.