// mutesolo

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Mute | Solo

Fixed Media

Mute|Solo was created to be the last track on a compilation CD (Encounters, 2009) of short chamber works for string quartet, piano, and soprano.

I was given access to all the recorded material for sampling, from which selections were edited and catalogued. At least one sample was chosen from every work, and used in this piece. Rather than presenting the material as a form of plunderphonic juxtapositions and combinations, these selections were used as the basis of a series of extreme, realtime, wavetable manipulations, out of which phrases were again edited and catalogued.

In part the work was created as a response to the sliding and jittery gestures of Sciarrino's Tre Notturni Brillanti (1975). The final shape of the work was intuitively pieced together out of these phrase selections, with highlighted contrasts between relatively stable rhythmic treatments and more unstable granular approaches.

Jr mutesolo mstr by pixelmechanic

In Mute|Solo, sparse, percussive, and rhythmic fragments make way for rapid, slashing transformations of the sampled material. Untreated fragments occasionally surface and provide some respite from the intense digital grain. Though short, I consider this to be one of my breakthrough works.