These three landscapes were recorded at different times and places and are a small part of a larger “photo album” that grows with each trip. Each postcard is characterized by different colors and densities; color and density are the parameters that I intend to investigate through the treatment of sound and composition.

Three postcards from three landscapes

Dreaming of escaping, escaping in the dream; this is the idea behind the composition.
The sequence of scenes that make up the composition describes an abstract, twisted and in some respects contrasting imagery, all attributable to a state of mind that leads to the implementation of behavioral strategies of various kinds, depending on the individual, and emphasizes of the typical traits of a certain personality.

Escape

Once again

Self Control

Keys

A soundscape composition from Vigevano (IT). 03/2022

The composition exclusively utilizes sounds captured in the vibrant streets of Vigevano. The intent was to blend delicately reprocessed sound elements with pure noise, filtered directly from the same recordings through advanced noise suppression techniques.

(de)noising

Impression

Subverse

The processing of sound material does not necessarily imply a change of identity for the object subjected to a specific process, so you can create new material while maintaining distinct the initial appearance of the object.
In fact homeostasis is defined as an attempt at conservation of a given structural level, therefore, a tendency to the retention of information.
I consider a sound as a word in its narrow sense.
The aim of this composition is to create a timbre and temporal connection among sound objects. Elements from different environments and contexts, totally unrelated to each other, coexist, are intertwined and interact together, thus giving rise to a form "alive and responsive" able to move in an imaginary space.
Here an experiment with Processing: https://vimeo.com/188304308

Homéostasie

Confine Sensibile

Matérica

The term “residuale” means something that remain. The residue is what is left, what remains by any kind of operations or processes of transformation.
Residual space is a waiting space, trapped in a time-suspended state. Among the processes that lead to its formation and those who reintroduce it into the circuit of planned urban mechanisms, the residual space will be characterized by its own temporality, which goes beyond those imposed by any kind of planning. It no longer follows the rhythms and times of metropolitan and social dynamics, but the flow of time takes on other rhythms that are first of all belong to nature.

Spazio Residuale

This work is triggered by a consideration of the speed and amount of information which we are exposed to in each moment of our lives and of human actions. The problem clearly focuses on a very narrow temporal dimension (from the 1980s to the present) which includes technological, and consequently socially very important changes. The path taken by Western societies, ranging from pre-industrial to post-industrial age, seems to be characterised not by a linear trend but by a steep curve.
Speed is a central parameter in our daily life, but we must take into account the damage that this can cause to our consciousness. Our inner balance is at risk as mankind races towards the future reaching a limit speed, to which we are struggling to adapt; this leaves less time for important processes such as critical attention and thinking.

Velocità Limite

Substrate is a composition generated mainly by the combination of concrete sound materials and the result of the same subjected to software processing. Two realities - concrete sound and its derivative - concur to giving life to an environment characterized by a spectral content that concentrates more in the lower region of the audible spectrum.
Through the use of filters specialized in noise suppression, I wanted to isolate from each audio file the spectral components attributable to noise, so I obtained new audio material. The tracks of "noise" obtained have been further processed through reverberation and the use of resonant filters.
The noise present in the captured environment thus assumes a fundamental role in the composition overlying the sound material that generated it.

Substrato

"Mechanistic" is the conception that reduces reality to only two factors: matter (bodies) and theirs movement (including the laws that govern it).
In the modern age the universe is described as one "Machine" composed of bodies that are subject to an incessant movement, a continuous interaction, regulated by the necessary causality, that is, by a rigid concatenation of causes and effects, mathematically determinable.
"Mécaniste", like most of my compositions, is a work that comes from the concept of causality, which is the relationship that links the cause with the effect. Therefore it's causality that drives me mainly in the organization of the sound material. In any case, the compositional intent is always to maintain a clear dichotomy between the real sound and what derives from its elaboration.
With Mécaniste, I have tried to recreate an environment where chaos and causality cohexist; these two aspects could be in contrast one with the other so from this contrast the unpredictability of the mechanistic system derives.

Mécaniste

[Rebirth] is a composition that wants to describe - as a sort of timelaps - a scenario in which nature takes back what man has taken from her. This is not a post apocalyptic scenario but simply an environment in which nature dominates the traces of humanity; it grows, walks and makes space through the rubble, swallowing everything it finds.
The process of rebirth takes on different speeds at different times, while its vision (focus) is shifted from the micro (organic sound) to the macro (moments of dilation).

Rebirth

Noise is today considered as the main factor of pollution of a physical nature, it represents a problem of great social importance for the number of subjects involved and for the consequences that this provokes on human health.
Noise mean unwanted sound, devoid of useful information for the man, which induces annoying and unpleasant sensations to cause, in particular conditions, serious and irreversible consequences both on the auditory apparatus and on the whole organism; it can also change the quality of life by influencing social behaviour and cognitive development.
The sensitivity to noise is different for each subject: while some individuals are able to tolerate high levels of noise for long periods, others in the same environment quickly respond to a decrease in hearing sensitivity or, in contrast, develop hypersensitivity to it.
This sound mass daily invests people degrading the quality of life, considerably overpowering the sounds of nature, alters and unbalances the ecosystem in which we live.

"Threshold - unbalanced system" is a composition that refers to the concepts of noise and the problems related to its perception and endurance. It manifests itself in different forms and timbres; it is a product that derives from man's transformative and intentional processes; it imposes itself, it stratifies, saturates the environment and modifies it.
Through dynamic contrasts, sudden breaks with silence and masses of sound independent of each other and without a precise identity, I wanted to give a personal interpretation to the problem of noise and tolerance to it.

Threshold - Unbalanced System

"Tempus fugit" comes from a series of personal reflections on the perception of time. A time that escapes and devours all the things it has created. A time as a state of consciousness and perception that expands and contracts itself. A time observed on the faces of others, on my city, on my nearests and dearests. That time which influences us in our choices and which constantly fills our present in imagining the future and remembering the past.

Tempus Fugit

The mind - for the ancient Greeks psiché- is an open space, a universe that is not always easy to explore. It contains all the characteristics or psychic functions of an individual that determine his personality which in turn determines how to react and interact with the environment. Some areas of this space are therefore reflected in a person's behavior.
Behavior and boundless space are the key words that have accompanied me for the realization of this composition by imagining three phases of a path aimed at triggering reactions in an individual: 1 detachment; 2 reaction; 3 emergence.

Is There Anybody Out There?

Transitions

Cluster

Confidences

Spectral processing and harmonic distortion of a bell.

Resonances

Paolo Pastorino (1983) is an acousmatic composer.
He studied and graduated in computer music and sound technologies at the Conservatory of Sassari and he is specialized in new music technologies at the Conservatory of Cagliari.
His compositions have been presented in several contemporary and electroacoustic music festivals in different countries of the world.

Paolo Pastorino

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