A rough version of my new 8 channel piece.

Si02 - BINAURAL- USE HEADPHONES!

To Hao Hao & Xing Hui...

The title Sacred Voices,  was suggested by the use of and manipulation of sound materials which are considered to symbolise religion, culture, or species. The piece was composed mainly from material that had been recorded during a research trip to China in May, 2013. Much of the material was derived from a rare opportunity to record Giant Pandas in their enclosures at the Dujangyan Panda Reintroduction Centre, alongside a recording made in Xi’an of monks singing in a Buddhist Temple and carts being driven up hutongs in Beijing. These sounds (voices) are explored in a manner straddling on the very edge of real and unreal sound worlds and act as expressions or traces of places or moments in time.  

Sacred voices attempts to convey the idea of a series of momentary structures and forms experienced in space and time.  Throughout the work, sounds are presented as ‘moments’ in time and, space- the source of which is left up to the listener to imagine.  These moments are then expanded and explored throughout the piece- with each idea being mined for potential developments. The idea for this derived from my fascination with the manipulation of  field recordings, but also with sound design and spatialisation, both within the concert hall, and in a piece itself.

Along with 我們的歌 (Our Song), this work forms a collection of acousmatic works exploring sounds recorded in China in May, 2013 as part of the SCEN Music Project(www.scenmusic.info). In contrast to 我們的歌 (Our Song), where the sounds presented clearly provided a sense of place and culture, I wanted to carry out a manipulation of some of the same sound material, but without forcing any expectation of a particular place or culture onto the listener. In this piece, the manipulation of source material through both space and time was central to my train of thought. 

Sacred Voices was composed from December, 2013 to January, 2014 in the studios of De Montfort University (Leicester, England, UK). The work was commissioned by Reinhard Fuchs and Forum Liverpool with support from Scotland China Education Network, University of Aberdeen Confucius Institute and De Montfort University Confucius Institute. It was a finalist in the Concours Destellos 2014 competition.  Special thanks to John Young.

Sacred Voices (2014)- Finalist Destellos 2014

****This is a Binaural mix of my 16 channel work Cyclic Motions. Please wear headphones!****

Cyclic Motions (2014)

Cyclic (def):-
1. Revolving or recurring in cycles, characterised by recurrence in cycles.
2. of, pertaining to, or constituting a cycle or cycles.

Motion (def):-

1. the action or process of moving or being moved.

Cyclic Motions is a 16 channel acousmatic work which seeks to explore expectation through the recycling of thematic material explored throughout. The sound materials used within the work, are limited to those previously unused or redundant from previous works- all of which had at some point been destined for the (Mac) Trash. One of the first sounds that I was attracted to when listening to this previously redundant sound material, was a recording I made of the University of Aberdeen Gamelan ensemble several years ago. Through exploration of this material in the 16 channel studio, I decided that spectrally, this particular recording would be significant to the work. Other material used was derived from material I worked with (but ultimately did not use)in previous works, and recordings of some orchestral rehearsals made over the years.

The work is also a venture into composing 16 channel music. I wanted to explore this format, and investigate its effectiveness in terms of the magnitudes of spatial resolution, depth and polyphony which can be achieved as opposed to other formats such as stereo, eight channels or 5.1.

Cyclic Motions was composed between April and September 2014 in the studios of the Music, Technology and Innovation Research Centre of De Montfort University.

Cyclic Motion Binaural Mix



(…Prologue):0’00”: dur. 0’56”
(…Parc): 0’57”: dur. 1’55”
(…Ligne Verte): 2’53”: dur. 1’24”
(… Ile Notre-Dame): 4’17”: dur. 2’07”
(…Sur le Trottoir…): 6’24”: dur. 3’00”

What is a city? Places within a ‘place’. Spaces within a ‘space. All is not as it seems… Spaces speak with sounds, melodies… noise… What does it conceal? Peeling back the layers of sound, what will it reveal?

Tout Autour de la Montagne (All Around the Mountain) is a cycle of short acousmatic spaces created with field recordings made during fall 2014 in Montréal. The title is derived from the mountain upon which the island of Montreal is named (lit. Mount- Royal) and around which everything in the city is based. Concealed within the island, are numerous space, hidden, and just waiting to be explored. Within the work, each ‘space’ has a similar formal approach to manipulating the sounds to reveal different and ultimately surprising, unexpected sonic spaces.

Tout Autour de la Montagne was realised in the studios of the Université de Montréal during the fall of 2014. I wish to express my gratitude towards the funding bodies who funded my residency in Montréal- De Montfort University (The Arts and Humanities Research Council Support Grant )The Scottish International Educational trust who awarded me a fellowship to support my work in Canada., and to De Montfort University Music, Technology and Innovation Research Centre, and the Faculté de Musique de Université de Montréal for their overwhelming support of the project. 
Special thanks to Robert Normandeau.

Tout Autour De La Montagne (Mention, Destellos Composition Competition 2015)

Rift (2015)

noun
A crack, split, or break in something.

Synonyms: crack, fault, flaw, split, break, breach, fissure, fracture, space, aperture…

There are a number of different meanings of Rift permeating this work. The deliberate destruction of source materials allow for the creation of gestures that permit the fracturing and breaking of the sonic space. One of the pieces principle functions is an exploration of relationships between sound and silence. The silences that punctuate the sonic canvas throughout Rift are intended to allow the listener to reflect on events in the work, and anticipate what might follow.

Rift was realized during summer 2015 in the studios of the Music, Technology and Innovation Research Centre, Leicester, UK.


Rift

Opening

Dream Machine 1+2

Dream Machine

Dream Machine represents the first part of an ongoing project collaborating with Everards Brewery in Leicester to evoke the sights and sounds of the beer-making process through acousmatic music and follows on from Black Velvet composed in 2010 which used cans of Guinness as its sound source.

Dream Machine focuses on the sound of the beer racker: a huge machine which cleans out kegs and refills them before brewery workers seal and label them by hand.  Whilst recording, I was struck by the wide range of functions that one machine undertakes, as well as the process still involving human interaction when numerous other breweries have moved to a fully automated process. Because it plays such an important role in the production of beer, I concentrated on bringing its individual functions to life in an imaginary machine.  As such my intention was through processing of sound, to create an enigmatic sound-world, and one which will draw the listener in.

Dream Machine was created from source recordings made at Everards Brewery, Leicestershire in August 2016. It was composed in November 2016 at the studios of De Montfort University’s Music, Technology and Innovation Research Centre.

Dream Machine

Homo Machina - Preview

Homo Machina is the first work composed as part of the suite Der Industriepalast. The piece is deeply influenced by the work of infographic pioneer, Fritz Kahn (1888-1968). Kahn’s most pivotal work was the life-sized poster “Der Mensch als Industriepalast” (Man as Industrial Palace) of 1926, which this piece is based upon.  Such is the inspiration of his work, it has influenced children’s anatomy books, comics (e.g. Numskullz) and even movies (e.g. Fantastic Voyage).

The visual crossover between industrialization and science in Fritz Kahn's artwork demonstrates the means by which human nature became culturally encoded by placing the knowledge of the human anatomy within the context of the modern, industrial world. Kahn produced lots of illustrations that drew a direct functional analogy between human physiology and the operation of modern technologies of the times. Therefore, by illustrating the body as a factory, Kahn was able to relate the body’s complex organic interior to the industrialized space so common in society during  the 1920’s.

As the work is intended as an introduction to a far longer suite, it is intended to provide an overview to the sounds that Kahn may have imagined as he was creating his remarkable graphics. It is therefore structured into 6 sections. 

Introduction: 00:00-00:21
Lungs: 00:22-02:03
Heart: 02:04-04:01
Brain: 04:02-06:05
Digestion: 06:05-07:59
Homo Machina : 07:59-10:07

Homo Machina

This piece is inspired by and based upon one of the writings of the Infographics pioneer Fritz Kahn which bears the same name. As an imaginary and metaphorical journey through the bloodstream, it lends itself to adventure and sci-fi stories such as the movie Fantastic Voyage directed by Richard Fleischer and Harry Kleiner (and the novel of the same name, written by Otto Klement and Jerome Bixby) where a submarine crew are minaturised to the size of a molecule in order that they can enter a injured scientists body to repair damage to his brain.

In Kahn's story (and this sonic interpretation), we travel through the bloodstream in a "cell boat". Therefore, the piece is a mixture of real/unreal and completely abstract sound worlds.  We begin by meandering through the capillary system into  a gland cave which is compared by Kahn to the entrance of Fingal's Cave. After entering, we are whisked through a gland portal, pushing through the cell wall and into the arterial system where the pumping power of the heart makes the ride far more turbulent and dangerous.


	i: Capillaries and Caverns
	ii: Through the Cell Wall and into the Venous System.
	iii: Into the Arterial System
	iv: On the Waves of the Bloodstream.
	v: Halls and Pillars
	vi: Into the Lungs
	vii: Hellish Descent


N.B. Special thanks to Uta and Thilo Von Debschitz and the Kahn family for their support and permission to use Fritz Kahn’s work as inspiration in this project.

Fairytale Journey on the Bloodstream

Supercollider. First bit of coding. Will become a piece eventually

Rebirth

Lines Of Communication   Example

Louise Rossiter is an acousmatic composer based in Leicester, UK. Her research interests lie in acousmatic music composition and performance, acoustic ecology, silence, and expectation. She recently completed a PhD at the Music, Technology and Innovation Research Centre, De Montfort University under the supervision of John Young and Simon Emmerson, having studied previously under Pete Stollery, Robert Dow and Robert Normandeau. 
Louise’s music has been performed and broadcast around the world. In 2012 Louise was awarded first prize in the prestigious concours d’interprétation spatialisée de L’espace du Sons in Brussels and in 2015, her work Tout Autour de la Montagne was awarded a mention in the Destellos International Composition Competition. Louise’s music is released on the Xylem record label (http://www.xylemrecords.bandcamp.com).

Louise Rossiter

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