all-forgetting-is-retrieval (2019) by Jason Thorpe Buchanan
septet, augmented conductor, and electronics
July 8, 2019, Thailand New Music and Arts Symposium

Video: https://vimeo.com/386270819

TACETi Ensemble
Pisol Manatchinapisit, saxophone
Christhatai Paksamai, bass clarinet
Siravith Kongbandalsuk, trombone
Noppakorn Auesirinucroch, guitar
Pipe Kantapong, percussion
Tapanat Kiatpaibulkit, violin
Kantika Comenaphatt, cello
Piyawat Louilarpprasert, augmented conductor
Jason Thorpe Buchanan, electronics

Engineers: Book Pongtorn and Jason Thorpe Buchanan
Mix: Jason Thorpe Buchanan
Remastered Jun 7, 2021

This work explores the formation of human memory, retrieval, and failure, drawing from two sources. The first was a passage titled “Myth of Permanent Memory” from R.A. Chechile’s book 'Analyzing Memory: The Formation, Retention, and Measurement of Memory': “There is a common belief that forgetting is strictly due to a retrieval failure. It is curious why this idea of a permanent memory is so appealing...the storage of information is not perfect. Storage as well as retrieval is subject to failure. Thus, the hypothesis that all-forgetting-is-retrieval is incorrect. For information in this state of permanent [long-term] memory, all subsequent forgetting is assumed to be caused by a retrieval failure. Yet...there is no known biological mechanism to stop the adaptive changes in memory from continuing and thereby possibly destroying the prior learning record. If the learning environment changes, the same adaptive mechanisms that created the memory in the first place will continue to rearrange the structure of memory and potentially destroy the former memory representation.”
   The second source is dialogue from a 1978 ephemeral film, 'Human Memory', by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, used as sonic material for the electronics throughout the work, written for eight musicians including a conductor and percussionist who have been augmented by contact microphones and wearable electronics to trigger and govern the behavior of temporal events and media, manipulated through the use of wrist-worn sensors and gestural tracking mapped onto discrete musical parameters. The title is both perplexing and quickly disproven in the above passage, reflecting the strange and unfamiliar space that, for me, the piece inhabits, with “failures” both large and small. Artistically, my apprehension toward falling into familiar patterns and relying on my past compositional work shares a similar cognitive and emotional space as “lost” experiences—the inability to be truly present in a moment, or failure to commit to memory experiences that are simultaneously both formative and fleeting. The rapid loss of their fidelity is staggering, and this work attempts to confront that impermanence and decay. To reflect this, I was interested in both paraphrasing and sampling elements of my past work, alongside the recontextualization of “found” media and sonic material deeply familiar to me. How can we be certain of things we have experienced, and that the events that took place were not, in fact, radically different than what we remember? These inaccuracies and discrepancies that form over time through internal repetition, how information storage and retrieval may be influenced by context, and what kind of experience might interrupt a memory from being formed, are explored.
   “The subject of our film is memory. Imagine what your mental life would be like if you had no memory at all..

More at www.jasonthorpebuchanan.com

all-forgetting-is-retrieval (2019) - TACETi Ensemble

Commissioned by S-201. 

Opus.201 Ludwig Van concert premiere on August 16th, 2021 at RüBühne, Essen.

Ensemble S201:
Dimitry Stavrianidi, Bass Flute
Tamon Yashima, Oboe
Heni Hyunjung Kim, Bass Clarinet
Filip Erakovic, Accordion
Robert "Rob“ Alan Wheatley, Cello

Pure Bloom (live recording)

Toucher un souvenir (starts 03:08) preceded by Heirich Schütz 'Herr, wenn ich nur dich habe' 
for vocal ensemble, Violone and organ 2022
AuditivVokal, Olaf Katzer conductor 
Heinrich Schütz Musikfest09.10.2023

Toucher Un Souvenir (preceded by Heinrich Schütz 'Herr, wenn ich nur dich habe')

Electronic Miniature - THREE

Sense (2013-14) for electroacoustic sounds.
Duration 8' 22 minutes

Sense [tape]

Libro di fiammelle e ombre (2017)
for six solo voices

incorporating madrigals by Jacques Arcadelt

EXAUDI / James Weeks

Libro di fiammelle e ombre

for amplified clarinet and tape. 
Josè Daniel Cirigliano, clarinet

D. Smalley: Clarinet Threads (frammenti)

Edwin Hillier - dhātu (2019, excerpt)

West Pole (2008) for piano and electronics.
Duration 9 minutes.

Ensemble Holophony Project
Preview Full Score at www.panayiotiskokoras.com/en/works.html
© Panayiotis Kokoras

West Pole [pno & elec]

** BINAURAL RECORDING: PLEASE LISTEN WITH HEADPHONES **

Excerpt of the world premiere performance of Rebecca Saunders 'The Mouth' (2020) for soprano and electronics. Performed at Centre Pompidou, La Grande Salle, on 5 September 2020 for Festival ManiFeste; recorded by  France Musique. Film of the whole performance now available here: https://youtu.be/7XQh1XPl-7E

Commissioned by Annie Clair
Text and music by Rebecca Saunders
Electronics by Alexis Baskind (IRCAM)
Written for Juliet Fraser

PROGRAMME NOTE
The mouth is the threshold between two worlds, the interior and exterior. There is the inner voice which each of us carries within - an internal monologue, our voice-over, an incessant narrative, suppressed and hidden beneath the surface. And then there is the voice we send into the world - momentary articulations, an eloquent discourse or a stumbling incoherent murmur. This sounding voice is vunerable, of utmost fragility - a part of us exposed and projected out of us and beyond, into an abyss. And there is the chasm between inside and outside: a dichotomy between the inner and outer voice, between our secret internal monologue and the voice sent into the world and that is heard. And the mouth is at this threshold, embodying a kind of purgatory.

This piece partly asks: what is this inner voice, what is there suppressed, held within, flowing beneath the surface? And what can actually then be said, if anything at all? The text is my own - streams of recitations, with occassional moments of clarity. The work explores the extensive range of colours and sounds naturally produced within the mouth cavity. The electronic part is made entirely from live recordings of Juliet Fraser's recorded voice, and a little of my own.

Written with my grateful thanks to Juliet Fraser and Alexis Baskind for this wonderful collaboration. 

RS, July 2020

The Mouth

REBECCA SAUNDERS The Mouth (excerpt)

Edwin Hillier, Plastica (2020)
for ensemble and electronics

Live recording from City, University of London, on 25.02.20.

Taylor MacLennan, bass flute
Alex Roberts, bass clarinet
Emmanuelle Fleurot, piano
David Lopez, violin
Morag Robertson, viola
Cecilia Bignall, cello

Edwin Hillier: Plastica [clip]

Edwin Hillier is a British composer of acoustic and electroacoustic music. Recent works have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, France Musique and recorded on the NMC Record Label. He was a recipient of the Scottish Award for New Music in both 2021 (Dorico Award for Small/Medium Scale Work) and 2020 (Electroacoustic/Sound Artwork). A graduate of the University of Cambridge, Edwin was awarded a scholarship to the Royal College of Music to pursue his postgraduate studies, supported by the RVW Trust and the AHRC. In 2021 he attained his doctorate in composition. 

At the RCM, Edwin is now a Composition professor, Academic professor, and Module Leader in Musical Analysis.

Edwin Hillier - dhātu (2019, excerpt)

edwinhillier

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