Exhaustive permutations of a limited number of parameters controlling additive Supercollider synths. For tuning the voices against each other, a “partial stealing” algorithm is used -- each new sound scans the current harmonic state for partials with which it will form a dissonant relationship, and can then request that these partials be attenuated or muted and their corresponding synths are freed.
A semi-random walk through a collection of samples collected from various ports of the Mutable Instruments Plaits oscillator.
Counterpoint exercise with a repeating chromatic cell. One harmonic and one inharmonic layer with three voices each.
This sketch uses a mix of homebrewed synths (SuperCollider) and sequenced fx chains (Reaper). Each voice consists of bandpassed noise, an additive and a wavetable oscillator. All sounds are created by interpolating 32 synth parameters between four distinct states and layering the results. All frequencies are quantized to a 13-limit just intonation scale.
Excerpt from a slowly unfolding canon with 50 voices for electric guitar and live electronics (Supercollider).
Map (2021) is part of a series of pieces which systematically explores dense, gradually changing instrumental textures.
The music is modelled as a continuous stream of events which modulate a sonority without fundamentally changing its character. Each of the two sections in "Map" consists of 242 events, regularly distributed over a three-minute ritardando. The first section contains five voices; the second contains six.
I am fascinated by the expressive potential of constraint-based systems, where simple rules and patterns interact in complex and often surprising ways. To be able explore a larger variety of systems, I developed a programming environment in Haskell in which I could quickly create and explore different types of harmonic constraints.
While working on the piece, I stumbled across a passage from Ursula Le Guin's utopian science fiction novel "The Dispossessed", in which the fictive composer Salas from the anarchist, resource-constrained planet Anarres describes his own music. It is also a relatively precise description of the music I was searching for:
Five instruments each playing an independent cyclic theme; no melodic causality; the forward process entirely in the relationship of the parts. It makes a lovely harmony.
Written for and performed by Lauren Redhead. Recorded in Evangelische Pfarrkirche, Berlin-Weißensee.