video audio scores libretti research

 

Spectral Synesthesia


for drum kit and electronics


Spectral Synesthesia (2010) was my first electroacoustic work, composed and performed during my bachelors at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music shortly after discovering spectral music — an influence that has remained throughout my work. My attraction to sine tones and white noise, through my classical violin training (through the 8 AMEB grades) and the close analogue that I experienced in the deeply embodied way of generating specific pitches and timbres on a violin and the generation of sine tones to specific frequencies and exploring the frequency components of white noise, all began with this work. I subsequently utilized sine tones and white noise in all of my electronic music.

I composed the music and produced the video together, based on sound-color associations derived from the color wheel and the cultural context I was born into. The pitches/colors progressively shift away from Western diatonic harmony towards chromaticism, bitonality, then microtonality, the latter either partially or wholly derived from the harmonic series. As the arpeggios extend across the pitch extremes accompanied by steady drums, Shepard’s tones, binaural beats, white noise, and block chords emerge and interweave.

 

 


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