Composed for fine artist Martin Thaulow's multimedia installation 'Contraction'.

Conceived and realised by Rudi Arapahoe
Featuring the voice of Jovana Backovic

Contraction (for Martin Thaulow's 'Contraction')

Double Bind (2013) was largely inspired by the writings of Gregory Bateson and Ronald David Laing. The EP explored dualities and the different selves we use to inhabit our various faces. With this new work I wanted to take this exploration further by introducing a new self into the composition process. I created this False Self in the SuperColider programming language, as an algorithmic musician designed to compose and play alongside my true self. False Self can 'hear' and responds to my improvisations by outputting MIDI harmonizing information voiced through a Roland Integra 7 sound module. False Self stores all of our joint improvisations as MIDI musical notation. He forgets nothing.

At first False Self composed in a naive fashion, though like any good student; he became more accomplished and free thinking. As time passed I taught him various scales, time signatures and rules to follow and occasionally deviate from. For instance, I programmed him to favour certain intervals and note durations when composing for tuned bells and alternate note ranges and closer intervals for leading musical parts such as wind instruments.
 
As the project progressed I found that if I positively adjusted the timing of his MIDI notes in post-production it would give the illusion that he had led the composition and I had been his accompanist. Further I realized that if I recycled the simple initial composition through False Self he would respond with another layer of instrumentation; or as in the case of It Becomes You, I found that if I removed the notation for the lead melody I had composed; then recycled the composition through False Self, my artificial assistant would compose in the vacant space, often to interesting results.

The project frequently gave rise to the question of what and why is something in ‘good’ taste. False Self may have followed all of the rules, but due to some unforeseen condition he would make a decision that would take me off guard and lead my improvisations into new territory. At times I would write accompanying parts myself then later question whether they had been composed by my true self or the imposter.

Once False Self and I were happy with our compositions, the MIDI notation for the elements that were sounded by the Roland Integra 7 module was transferred into a REAPER workstation DAW. These musical parts were then rerecorded by human musicians and the synthesized elements rerecorded with my Korg Delta, Korg Poly 61, Yamaha DX7ii and Roland D550. The older synthesizers were all recorded as live performances to humanise the compositions and ensure that the record did not fall into the trap of rigidity.

I decided to master the sound levels in a comparable overall volume and fashion to early 1980s ambient music and hired two effects processors from the era, an Eventide H3000 and an Eventide SP 2016 reverberation unit to enhance the creative mixing process. 

We hope you enjoy our first collaboration,

Rudi Arapahoe and False Self 2016



False Self

Chaste

Conceived by Rudi Arapahoe
Realised by Rudi Arapahoe, Danny Norbury, Eve Basildes David Berger and Jovana Backovic
Mixed by Shuta Shinoda
Mastered by Rudi Arapahoe

Double Bind

If our memories provide the blue print for our identity, what happens if our sense of self is built on a faulty recollection?

A False Memory of a Sports Party (2018) advances themes of dualities, identity and false identity developed through Double Bind (2012) and False Self (2016), by delving into our past - both real and imagined.

During the creation of the album I was inspired by Elizabeth Loftus's pioneering research into memory distortion and specifically the generation of false memories. The disturbing voices that haunt A False Memory of a Sports Party reference Loftus's work. They speak of past traumas, yet we are unsure whether they are lucid recollections or fantastic confabulations.

All of the instruments heard throughout the album are late 1980s and early 1980s attempts to synthesize and sample acoustic instruments. These early digital instruments have a clunky, strange, counterfeit tone, that I find fascinating.

The album finds me once again collaborating with FALSE SELF*. Working together in the fertile area where composition and improvisation meet. This time however, I extensively reworked, or to use Loftus's term - distorted, our joint efforts alone, in a final compositional phase of digital postproduction.

Rudi Arapahoe 2018

* For information about the FALSE SELF Super Collider algorithm see www.rudiarapahoe.com

Into The Floor (snippet)

Echoes From One To Another

Conversation Piece

Forest Of Arches

Plates, Vol 1 is an exploration of Erik Satie's cryptic Système sur-atonal.

Bandcamp:
https://rudiarapahoe.bandcamp.com/album/plates-vol-1-syst-me-sur-atonal

Plate II Bartizan

Experimental music composer - www.rudiarapahoe.com

Rudi Arapahoe

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