Penumbra / Umbra / Void
//
Douglas McCausland
11.1.21

FULL PIECE AVAILABLE HERE: https://youtu.be/2gF24WisN-w

Penumbra / Umbra / Void is an entry in a diary. This piece is about self perception and identity, finding catharsis through the artistic process, recursive self-destructive cycles, obsession over minutiae, and self-inflicted isolation starting long before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Composed for cellist Seth Parker Woods in 2021, this work was supported by Music 541 and Experimental Sound Studio; cello materials were recorded with the assistance of Alex Inglizian and Ben Kolak.
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Penumbra / Umbra / Void (2021) // Binaural Audio

I was trained in tradition, yet I stepped beyond its walls. Sound is my language, not to decorate but to liberate. Composer, performer, and listener — one fire, three sparks, inseparable.

I write and compose to uncover what is hidden: the truth buried beneath power, the dignity of the ordinary, the current of awareness that flows through all.

I belong to no authority, only to sound, to truth, to the silence from which all begins. My work is not mastery, but remembrance — a manifesto in every note, every word, every breath.

I am a composer of the 21st century: a studio artist. The studio is my forge, my battlefield, my sanctuary. Machines hum like choirs, circuits burn like torches, cables twist like roots in the earth. Tradition breaks open in this fire — the score turns to light, the instrument becomes the world itself.

To be a studio artist is to seize sound at its rawest, to sculpt electricity and breath as one, to summon the invisible power that belongs to all. Here music is not bound by walls, not enslaved by profit, not tamed by form. It is free, untouchable, unending — a living flame for the century that is ours.

Azimuth soundtrack out now.
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Upcoming: 20.10.23 Another Sky (Bristol)
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29.09.23 Another Sky Festival (London)
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09.07.23 IKLECTIKA 2023
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01.12.22 Futur.Shock @ FOLD
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11.11.22 Backslash @ Gessnerallee 8
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17.09.22 Azimuth @ Akusmata Gallery
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15.09.22 Geiger Festival 2022 @ Atalante
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09.04.22 Aliens Are... @ Kunstraum Kreuzberg
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02.10.21 Donaufestival 2021 @ Minoritenkirche
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22.09.21 Nomadic Signals @ ISSUE Project Room
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05.07.21 VIRTUALLYREALITY SS21
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25.05.21 UNUSUAL BUSINESS @ Nusasonic
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19.03.21 COMMON MULTIVERSE @ Currents
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13.03.21 LEAVE NO TRACE Takeover @ Threads
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20.02.21 PASAR ALKISAH Festival @ Worldwide
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23.01.21 CTM Festival 2021 @ Club Matryoshka
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21.03.20 Cycles in 11 exhibition opening performance @ Bait Al Serkal 
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02.02.20 CTM Festival, Hacklab 2020 live performance @ Radialsystem 
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07.12.19 Madeiradig @ Cine Sol 
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22.09.19 Int'l Winners presents FRKTL ◡ Aircode ◡ Dilian ◡ Jaeho Hwang ◡ TZT @ The Glove That Fits 
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31.07.19 Kiezsalon @ Musikbrauerei 
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27.06.19 N1L & FRKTL @ Kauplus Aasia 
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23.02.19 NoDirt NoLife @ UMBO 
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22.02.19 Klappfon @ Solothurnerstrasse 4 
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18.10.18 PUSH Festival @ Gävle Teater 
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02.08.18 Bread&&Butter @ Arena Berlin 
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Douglas McCausland is a composer / performer, sound designer, and digital artist whose visceral and often chaotic works explore the extremes of sound, technology, and the digital medium.

As an artist, he researches and leverages the intersections of numerous technologies and creative practices, such as real-time electronic music performance with purpose-built interfaces, spatial audio, interactive systems, intermedia art, musical applications of machine-learning, experimental sound design, and hardware-hacking.

Described as “Tremendously powerful, dark, and sometimes terrifying…” (SEAMUS) and “Ruthlessly visceral…” (The Wire), his works have been performed internationally, including features at Sonorities, SEAMUS, the San Francisco Tape Music Festival, MISE-EN Music Festival, Klingt Gut!, Sounds Like THIS!, NYCEMF, Sonicscape, and Ars Electronica.  Recent collaborations include artists such as bassist Aleksander Gabryś, cellist Seth Parker Woods, the Quasar Saxophone Quartet, the TAK Ensemble, and vocal ensemble Variant 6.  His work is available through various online platforms, and on SEAMUS, Plyta Z Audiomatu, and Jikken Records.

Recent honors include an award of distinction in the 2021 Prix Ars Electronica for his piece “Convergence”, winning 1st-Prize in the 2021 ASCAP/SEAMUS commission competition, the gold-prize award for “contemporary computer music” in the Verband Deutscher Tonmeister Student 3D Audio Production Competition, and being awarded the runner-up nomination for the International Confederation of Electroacoustic Music's 2019 CIME Prix. 

Douglas is currently the Technology and Applied Composition (TAC) Studio Manager at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.  He holds a DMA in music composition from Stanford University, where he studied with Chris Chafe, Patricia Alessandrini, Jaroslaw Kapuscinski, Fernando Lopez-Lezcano, and Mark Applebaum.  He additionally holds a MSc in Digital Composition and Performance from the University of Edinburgh, a MM in Music Composition from Michigan State University, and a BM in Music Composition, Saxophone Performance, and Music Education from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

A dweller on the streams, handy the confluence of MIXCLOUD SOUNDCLOUD & SLEEPBOT, I make occasional day trips to AMBIENTBLOGnet ACL A_L ASIP ASP BC CAMP DISQUIET DREAMSCENESnl E&D FS HEADPHONECOMMUTEcom LSR PC RADIO-RETHINK RESONANCE-FM SEB SF10-33 SOATC TIMJ TSC UBU UT WAAG & WFMU.