The macro (how points, lines, and clouds are structured into compositional form) seems of more subdued importance to this collection of works, though it clearly has its place. The microsonic level, unknown to note-based musical traditions, introduces immense complexity and even new paradigms into the already vast world of musical organization. He passes handfuls of sonic particles through his fingers much the way a child plays at the beach, in wonderment over the falling grains of an overflowing bucket of sand. Roads literally inhabits the micro time scale, editing particle by particle, caring for the acoustic space each will inhabit, its amplitude, its frequential components-selecting each grain as it may contribute to a mass, to a spiral, a burst, an upheaval, a wisp, a breath. Operating at this level, it is no surprise that, of the 13 pieces presented here, the average duration is around three minutes-a succinct unit of expression, which, according to the composer, is one of the most important form durations related to the human time scale, as evidenced by its prevalence in popular music. But, unlike the pop song, these are intricate, dense miniatures, so chiseled that one could easily echo Arnold Schoenberg's observation on the brevity of Anton Webern's works as reducing 'a novel to a sigh.'Īnd sigh Mr. These works have an overall dusty palette, infused with noises of a white, gray, and sandy persuasion. There is almost the feeling of watching grainy (no pun intended) black and white footage of a previously uncharted universe. And in this sphere of quantum sonics, rolling marbles and beads of sound operate according to an inner logic seemingly dictated by the very medium of particles, added to sheer invention. Roads is a timbral continuum between dry/metallic and wet/submerged soundscapes. The nigh obsolete organizing principles of pitch and meter appear only as secondary phenomena, produced by particle replication. And here the old phrase really applies: 'Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got till it's gone ' As such, when they do appear they are absolutely stunning events, made all the more beautiful by their ephemeral apparition. In Eleventh Vortex (2001), pitch zones appear on the horizon much as a colorful school of fish passes by an underwater film camera-a glorious moment that may never come your way again. Perhaps more than any other works, Tenth Vortex (2000) and Eleventh Vortex sound like musical necessities, far transcending.Smooth Operator is a unique new way of reaching out and sculpting sound at the spectral level – and it’s terrifically addictive and creative. Okay, I know what the first glance at this looks like. This seems to be an EQ, right? One that is apparently very into pastels? And I also admit that I’m wary of plug-ins these days that boast lots of “smart” features to try to dumb down conventional audio tools that work perfectly well.īut look closer, because Smooth Operator is actually none of that. The basic conceit here is to take spectral processing – translating a sound into an FFT for all-at-once real-time processing – out of the domain of just doing audio restoration and into something creative and fun.

Soundhack spectral compound