Stephanie Loveless

DISCONTACT! II, cd #1

1. [8] Kathy Kennedy - Music Box II - 1'20"

The main sound sources for this piece are generated by telephones, telephone message systems, and voice. These elements are sung, pitch shifted, and edited based on melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic principles, with vocal elements occasionally given textual prominence. The piece begins with a sound cloud composed of very short, high-frequency bleeps of different pitches, with a pitch-shifted automated telephone voice underneath. For the main body of the piece, the sung syllable "dum" is built into a varied melodic and rhythmic pattern which serves as the base around which the piece is built. Various bleeps, syllables, and melodic vocal phrases are layered harmonically, with voices often singing notes borrowed from the pitches of the beeps, and with a truncated verbal phrase often repeated several times before appearing in its' complete form.

2. [14] Jean Routier, avec Cristof Migone & Michel F. Côté - Sous les décombres d'une brève hémoragie champêtre - 2'58"

This highly rhythmic piece uses distortion, feedback, reverberation, repetition, speeding and reversing in the layering of elements, some of which are traditionally musical, and some of which are not. The distinct rhythmic and melodic patterns of individual elements create a polyrhythmic texture, which breaks into a non-rhythmic percussive section before the other elements return and the whole converges into a single rhythm. The sounds used include the twittering of birds (in an introductory segment), a rattle-creak sound complex (possibly derived from the bird sounds), spurts of electric guitar, high ringing tones and a sampled drum-set line, as well as assorted jangles and little bangs, a sewing-type machine sound, a siren, sped and reversed vocal sounds, and a recorded voice.

3. [15] Frédéric Roverselli - L'éveil de la cité - 2'30"

In this piece, various sound sources and processed sounds are gradually introduced and arranged into a loose polyrhythmic form (each elements' rhythmic movement kept distinct) which becomes increasingly tight as the piece develops. Sound sources include stomping feet (the driving force of the piece), running water and a sample of "old-time" music being performed in a bar. Processed sounds of indetermined source include tiny speeded "tic" sounds, and various metallic rings, hums, sighs, and bleeps. Loose rhythmic and melodic relationships are established between these elements, which come to a halt and are then re-presented as one clearly united movement, finally disintegrating as the piece draws to a close.

4. [23] Bruno Degazio - Jolly - 2'15"

This dynamic, nervous, agitated piece may be seen as a playful duet between "acoustic" (unprocessed instruments) and "electro" (post- production processing) elements. The sound sources of piano, violin, a plucked string instrument, and percussion (in honky-tonk styles) play out melodic themes which are then interfered with by processed ringing, distortion, reverberation, wind-like sound complexes, and electric guitar, which interact in atonal relationships with the original sounds. as the piece progresses, the main melodic texture becomes increasingly dissonant. Finally, the unprocessed instruments restate their themes, with minimal electric embellishments, and now significantly darker than when the piece began.

5. [25] Markos Lekkas - Chronographica Delta - 2'43"

In this evocative piece, single piano notes are struck and processed, creating an eerie soundscape. The notes are distorted, reverberated, and broken down int their composite tones, creating various buzzing and high, ringing sounds. these processed elements are layered, and provide a continuous backdrop against which the original piano notes appear. The high and low register extremities of the piano are used, with notes and patterns often appearing in the higher register before being repeated in the lower register. Midway through the piece, the processed elements raise in volume and move to the foreground. Towards the end of the piece the texture becomes sparser, until only ringing tones remain.

DISCONTACT! II, cd #2

6. [13] Garth Hobden - Inukshuk - 2'54"

As this piece begins, the sounds of gurgling water and twittering birds are layered with a reversed (and possibly slightly slowed) voice. The idyllic soundscape continues to be invaded by a host of sounds associated with horror. The backwards voice, loud insect sounds (derived through the speeding of vocal elements), high-pitched, discordant ringing, crow calls, low-pitched metallic rattles, and creaking noises combine to create an eerie soundscape which is satisfying, even when perceived as tongue-in-cheek. The reversed voice (fragments of which are often looped) foregrounds the piece, narrating with its' unintelligible words.

7. [19] Fred Semeniuk - Spraying - 2'40"

This arc-formed piece opens with the sounds of water gurgling and birds chirping, over which low, ominous, reverberated rumblings are soon layered. Next, a computer-generated (and partially phased) melody reminiscent of children's fantasy films is introduced. Slurps and synthesized "aaah"s are added to the texture before the melody shifts to a chord pattern and fades away. Various train-like sounds, pings, slitherings and rattlings (processed with panning, pitch-shifting, and speed changing) interact before a melodic line returns (this time as three chimed notes). The chimes remain, along with a wind-like sound, while the background texture fades away.

8. [20] Barry Truax - Bamboo, Silk and Stone [ex from tape part] - 3'06"

In this piece, stringed instruments and processed sounds derived from these instruments (through speed-changes, pitch-shifting, and phasing), create a rhythmic, melodic and textured soundscape. The sounds which are more easily identifiable as the plucking of the strings seem to appropriate an eastern (Indian) melodic sense. Various zwips, wind-like noises, ascending, ringing buzzes and harmonic ringings interact with the string sounds. Not only the plucking sounds, but also the sounds of friction as they are struck, are privileged. The texture breaks down before the processed sounds re-appear, this time in the foreground -- the plucking sounds now subservient.

9. [23] Christian Calon - En vol - 3'

In this acousmatic piece, an electric guitar-like sound is fragmented and reverberated alongside of high ringing notes and low drones. There is a spatial (filling the frequencies), as well as a melodic use of pitch, and percussive sequences. The piece becomes increasingly chaotic as the distorted electric guitar sound moves in and out of abstraction. A climax of rhythmic and highly-processed guitar sounds (with even more clipping, and much panning) appears before the piece quiets once more, in an arc-like shape. Pitch-bending (possibly pre-processing) is introduced, and the last gesture of the piece consists of a high, ringing sound complex that raises in volume and pitch, seeming to approach the listener before fading away.