Sud was commissioned by the Ministry of Culture, on the initiative of the GRM (INA Musical Research Group), where the play was performed in 1984-1985. The piece mainly uses sounds recorded in the Calanques massif, south of Marseille, and also sounds synthesized by computer in Marseille. These sounds were processed by computer at the GRM, using programs developed by Benedict Mailliard and Yann Geslin. The piece was performed on 4 tracks - the 2 track reduction was done for CD recording. At first, and by the moment, the piece is presented as a "phonography" - but sounds are usually altered by digital transformations. Thus the dynamic wave profile, which opens the room, permeates the three movements. The piece is built from a small number of "germinal" sounds: recordings of sea, insects, birds, chimes of wood and metal, short "gestures" played at the piano or synthesized at the computer; I made this material proliferate by combining various transformations: modulate, filter, color, reverberate, spatialize, mix, hybridize. Cezanne wanted to "unite curves of women with shoulders of hills": similarly, the crossed synthesis makes it possible to work "in the very bone of the nature" (Michaux), to produce hybrids, chimeras - of birds and …

Recording of Simo Lazarov's Pulsations. Described as "Pulsations of the Space" by the composer.

Recording of John Elmsly's, Triptych. In this work very simple technology is explored for musical results: the tape part was created using nothing more than one synthesizer, sequenced and overdubbed in real-time on a multi-track tape recorder. In all three pieces the aim was to write enjoyable but challenging music where the tape enlarges the performing space for the solo trumpet.

"Alternances" for violin, clarinet, piano, percussion, cello and tape was written in 1985, the electroacoustic effects being made in the studio of Romanian Radio-Television. The room consists of seven sections, including sections 2, 4 and 6 on tape. The 6th section on tape and "life" is the recurrence of the second section, of the same existing correspondence between sections 1 and 7, 3 and 4. The dominant idea of ​​the work is that of the imbsication of parallel music, with particular character and evolution. The music "life" is transformational, while that recorded in advance is non-transformational and has the appearance of a sound plasma; the first is discontinuous and the second - continuous. From the expressive point of view, the sounds "life" suggest belonging to the world of appearances; on the contrary, the sounds recorded on tape suggest a world of essences, permanence.

Recording of Jonathan Berger's An Island of Tears.

Subterranean Network, commissioned by Hartt School of Music, is an electronic work which seeks to evoke a sense of the experience of the tunnel fighting in Cu Chi during the Vietnam War. These tunnels, from which the Viet Cong fought much of the war, were dark, narrow, poorly ventilated hell holes, filled with booby traps and inconceivable real and psychological terrors which plagued the American soldiers, known as tunnel rats, whose duty it was to explore them. These men, if not killed by booby traps, snakes, spiders or scorpions, were in constant threat of ambush in the tunnels.

Music for Viola, Cello, and Tape was written and premiered in Paris in 1985. This work brings together two extremely different aspects of my musical experience: improvisational music and music involving computers. These two musical domains, representing intuition and rationale - opposites yet complements - hold a great deal of interest for me. This trio explores the interactions among three soloists, one being a tape of computer-generated sounds; in which no part plays a secondary role. The two-channel tape, was composed at the Institute of Sonology, Utrecht, The Netherlands. A computer, using stochastic procedures, was involved on every level of the composing process, from sound-synthesis algorithms to higher-level compositional decision-making. All programs were written by the composer in an assembly or high-level language and used in a real-time context. The compositional algorithm is based on an elaboration of Brownian movement, also known as a random walk. A tendency controlling pitch and duration of sound events delineates overall formal characteristics of the tape. Duration and pitch are tied parameters during the first section. At a certain point in the development of the tendency the two parameters, pitch and duration, become independent of one another. In time, the duration/pitch tendency becomes clearly …

It is a piece for 4-track tape, composed between November 1985 and August 1986 at CEMAMu (Centre d'Etudes de Mathématiques et Automatique Musicale) in Paris, using the UPIC, a graphically oriented computer system designed by Iannis Xenakis. The mixing was done in October 1986 at the Experimental Studio of the Polish Radio and Television in Warsaw with Ewa Guziolek as sound engineer. With the UPIC system, the composer is able to design all aspects of the music by means of an electro-magnetically sensitive drawing table. By means of a digital tape drive and D/A converters, data and sounds can be heard and stored, and higher level mixing of sounds and sections of the score can be done digitally. In "Voyage", there is a concentration on continual transformations of all parameters of the musical material; waveforms, dynamic forms, pitches, textures. For large sections of the piece there are five 'voices', which are similar but independant, and with rhythmic structures which are related to each other with the proportions 9:10:11:12:13. In the spatial projection, the four channels are divided into left and right, each side being in stereo (i.e front and back). Voices 9 and 11 are heard on one side, and …

Composed in the Laboratory of Investigation and Musical Production (LIPM) of the Recoleta Cultural Center, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Was composed with a Synclavier II. The original mixture was composed in four channels. The sonorous material was elaborated from 34 basic timbres generated from sinusoidal sounds, harmonic, inharmonic spectrum or colored noise bands. The different structures happen one after another, without stopping.

A universe. Self-contained. Where timbre were the principal item. To force it into another state; apart; and let it, in accordance with its own laws, return to its rest; and then to begin to compose. Bend and vary, change and break. To alter some kind of perfection in order to attain something else. Two main items shared the conception of this piece: the possible richness in perception provoked by the duality: whole versus parts; and the possibility of mapping into musical events the behaviour of an abstract system of interrelated objects when following an stochastic process towards its equilibrium. My first step was to define, in terms of a macro-static situation, the final state of my system. This final structure defined the harmonic, dynamic and timbrical aspects of nine different "objects" (fundamental, formant areas, subharmonics,modulations and relative microcomportment of these characteristics within one instance). The relative durations in the equilibrium of these objects, as well as the whole duration of the piece, the structural points defining the macroform, and other characteristics of the whole (hierarchies, symmetries...) were evolved from this final state of the system. {I was careful to define very colourful and individualistic microbehaviours for these objects, whilst, on …

"Sound recycling" would be the perfect term for Gerald Trimmel's composition cycle called "Palimpsest". When Trimmel performed his first "Palimpsest" in 1985, he did not consider this work as a final result. The following compositions were characterized by various procedures of sound accumulations and structural rearrangements. A lot of acoustic ready mades and complex structured sound elements were inserted, which first covered up and by and by extinguished the older ones. So the shrinking and dissolving fragments and the "young" and powerful soundscapes appear as antagonists of something like "aesthetics of dissapearance." The composition principle is based on the Palimpsest-technique (from the greek "palimpsestos"), which was used until the Middle Ages: manuscript pages or books, that have been written on, were scraped off, and used again.

"Corale quasi une fantasia" (or more correctly "Fantasia quasi une corale") was composed in July 1985 at the Electronic Music Studio in Cologne. My goal was less to compose a "work" or a "piece", than to do ten minutes that I would like, and if possible that you would like too.

If the music of the past was characterized by the contest between consonance and dissonance, the music of the present day is a contest between sound and noise. This percussion piece is located precisely in this intermedia area. The instrumentation is largely metallic, centering on gongs (Ching, Tching Lwo, Feng Lwo etc.) completed by a marimba. Structurally the piece develops from points (isolated, in varying density) by way of lines (aleatory distribution of glissando cymbals) to a surface. The pulsations and rotations of the steel drums are followed by contrast with a flexatone improvisation, leading to a renewed pulsation, with the marimba taking a virtuoso part. The work was first performed during the German Percussion Symposium Nürnberg 1986.

"Chromatonal" is an exploration of the twelve intervals in the tempered scale. The music contains twelve sections, each of increasing length - the first is 10 seconds, the second is 20, the third is 30, etc. Each section concentrates on a particular interval and is punctuated by a "spatial" sound. The sections alternate between melodic and harmonic textures. Pitch classes are devised up into two groups as follows: Group I – a-flat(8), g-flat(6), b-flat(10), d(2), d-flat(1); Group II – e-flat(3), a(9), e(4), f(5), c(0). The sections alternate their focus between both groups with Group I being harmonic and Group II being melodic, however, pitches from each group are used for harmonic purposes in all sections. The pitch class dominates both melodic and harmonic content. Therefore, the first section is harmonic and based on minor sixths, the second is melodic and based on minor thirds (and so on …). Since there is no harmonic movement within sections, the rhythmic complexity increases to produce a sense of forward motion. As the music becomes more rhythmic, phrases become more jagged and the sound less reflective. The creation of this piece would not have been possible without the cooperation of the staff at CCRMA …

Recording of Takehito Shimazu's Composition 16.

This is a fun piece and should be enjoyed by both the instrumentalists and the audience. The idea of the work is obvious from the name, "Carousel". Labels run our lives – who, what, where we are and so forth. Minimalism, Maximalism, Expressionist, traditional. All these labels have different meanings according to who is listening. Not mentioning the importance of where the listener is from. This piece should be listened to, and not labeled. It is conceived fro the Electro-Acoustic Concert Environment, and the colors here are painted for your ears. Enjoy.

In writing this piece for piano and tape, I have intended to articulate a process of transformation similar to that which constitutes the life cycle of lepidopterae (butterflies and moths). Just as the caterpillar stage of this insects represents the longest span in the cycle, so does my works concentrate on a gradual assembling (by both instruments) of a number of segmental rhythmic motives into distinct sound objects, which form - as it were- the "larvae" of the piece. The rhythmic process is further expanded by the material on tape by transforming the attacks and envelopes of the reiterated sound objects on the piano, revealing these at their different phases or "instars", before being completely encapsulated in the second tape solo. New timbre are introduced in this "chrysalis" section which culminates in the breakdown and regrouping of all rhythmic and timbale material and its transformation into a final polyrhythmic passage which quickly dies away. The sound sources for the piece are mainly piano, crystal and metal sounds processed on a Fairlight CMI. Other sounds present (FM) were created on a TX816 Synthesiser at Crew Studio in London. The tape portion was realised at the City University Electro-Acoustic Music Studios in …

The source material for White Night consists of digital delay processing of spoken names or portions of names of fellow artists. These fragments set up micro-rhythms which interlock, then slowly shift phase. Because the source fragments are essentially static in regard to texture, pitch and timbre, the composition is built on subtle rhythmic interactions among combinations of fragments, with amplitude and density determining the overall structure. White Night is a french expression for a sleepless night of the type characterized by the mind's relentless repetition of thoughts.

Around us are time bombs, latent disasters, wars and calamities - but: "From the world does not perish". The song is composed from the song of Zahra Leander and archival documents.

Recording of Boyko Stoyanov's Pairs.

The result of a long stay in the city of Cuenca during the summer of 1985 and a reflection of various experiences. In the first place, the influence of the city and its impressive landscape is undeniable. In addition, I wanted to pay a cryptic tribute to the writer Villiers de L'Isle-Adam: his short story The secret of ancient music, which is part of his cruel tales, awakened in me the fascination for this unusual an instrument of the nineteenth century called "Chinese hat", fascination that led me to build myself a sophisticated version that I called "big Chinese hat" because of its considerable dimensions. This instrument is the origin of agglomerates of concrete sounds that collide, move, disintegrate and blend together with other sounds of electronic origin into a magical mix throughout the work.

"Tel" is a word used in the Middle East and Bulgaria to say "hill" where layers of ruins mark the ebb and passage of historical cycles. All the musical material in this piece comes (or in a sense is reconstructed) from a matrix sequence of sound artifacts lasting approximately one and a half seconds. To create this micro-sequence, the author extracted pieces of tape from the trash bin of the electronic studio. Some first "waste" contained sounds of a man's voice (only source of all heights), the following contained either unrecognizable original noises or silences. From these nuclear sounds emerges all the musical material of the piece through the classical electroacoustic transformation means. "Tel" is roughly divided into three intertwined parts, each representing a phase in a cyclical pattern of evolution. In the first part, agglomerations of heterogeneous primordial sound elements intertwine with fast shapes similar to trajectories. In the second part, the sound elements reappear as standard patterns in more heterogeneous relationships. Despite and because of their mutual resemblance and common origin, these pattern-types ("musical sub-cultures") compete with one another in importance. Their identity, defined through patterns of recurrence (repetition), begins to lose their capacity to grow because of …

Halley's Comet was close to the earth in 1985. It's period is 76.01 years. Computer controlled 6 analog synthesizers.

Maze is the first part of an evening long multi-media work commissioned by the Bohus County Council and Musik i Väst. It is planned for a Nordic Arts Festival in Göteburg in 1989, with choreography by Biörn Elisson and stage design by Kjell Åhslund. This is an electro-acoustic work including both authentic instrumental sounds and fragments of song and vocal sounds from Kerstin Ståhl. The idea is to link up this mucis with a species of "sculptured scenes" without any real dramatic content, and a slide show. In this first part of the composition, an alluring surface is strectched to the point of the unbearable in "a balancing act between the beautiful and something whose anodyne loveliness makes it nauseating and ugly". This effect, however, is achieved mainly by pictoral means; the music principally conveys a complex holistic experience. In a second apart, not included in this record, all outward finery is pared away in a bare, introspective vision of life, death, and love.