Undirected

Charles, Christophe

Genre: music4me > Rock > Rock

Format: CD Album

Released: Tue 15 Aug 2000

Catalogue Number: 148632

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AUD$29.51

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Description:
The composer's notes accompanying this beautiful experimental CD explain how his music is made of constantly changing sequences. He uses a randomized computer sampling technique that means that the music has no repetition, it is always unfolding in an organic way. When he decided to document this computer music system in action, it must have presented a harrowing process -- deciding which of these permutations to immortalize on record. Hence, the composer has contained CD-ROM data, with the same randomizing software for the Macintosh included with the audio CD. It is possible to play this CD on the ROM drive, and the listener will never hear the same combination of musical elements. It is not, however, imperative to use this interactive software to fully hear this CD; as a conventional audio CD it is a beautiful record on complex electronic music. Its beguiling ambience sometimes gives way to academic sterility, as with much of the music of the Ritornell and Mille Plateaux labels. But before this minimalism becomes tedium, the composer morphs one event into another -- making it a seamless, constantly transforming soundscape. Christophe Charles has produced records in collaboration with another digital experimenter, Oval, as well as a prior CD, Undirected, which often brought him comparisons to Brian Eno, although this music is far more complex than Music for Airports as its sound sources are more varied. From street noise, dogs barking, synthesizers, and sundry field recordings of Eastern instruments, all of these sounds are given a discreet computer treatment rendering them musical, thus transforming them into a futuristic audio cinema. ~ Sylvie Harrison, AMG

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