Sonic Stones

Sonic Stones is the latest release from the austraLYSIS Electroband. The line up includes Roger Dean on keyboards and computers and Greg White on computers and sound projection. It contains two pieces: Pianostones, which is a fully composed studio piece; and Memeing ex Cathedra, an hour long improvisation originally broadcast by the ABC as part of multinational webcast organised by William Duckworth and his Cathedral band in New York.

Pianostones involves the digital manipulation of two fundamental sound sources: stone sounds recycled from the Hazel Smith work Nuraghic Echoes, and a previously released solo piano tribute to Bill Evans by Lysis called After Bill. The familiarity of the sound of the piano and the sharply identifiable scrunching of the stones is soon eclipsed as the piece progresses via digital manipulation. The contrasting sounds convolute until the piano converges on the stones to emit stone-like sounds of its own. The result is effective and enjoyable electronic music.

Memeing ex Cathedra is an improvised soundscape using the Max/MSP programming platform (Max/MSP is the state of the art software package that allows musicians to develop interactive music performance software. It is a modular program with many existing shared routines or libraries; however, third parties can develop new routines). Memeing ex Cathedra is a concept piece where streams of sound are perceived as memes whereby some ideas will flourish, develop and spread, while others disappear. Input from Dean and White guides this selection process using synthesised sounds, samples and a MIDI-keyboard that are also sometimes driven by interactive algorithms.

Lasting almost an hour, Memeing ex Cathedra is an epic journey through a variety of gradually morphing sonic landscapes. The resultant soundscapes are not as diverse or structured as might be anticipated in a musical work of this length. As Dean suggests, the improvised and conceptual nature of this work was a catalyst dissuading significant editing before release. The sounds move through a kind of slow release tension and release duality, gradually evolving between extreme dissonances and pleasant driving rhythms.

Sonic Stones is a welcome addition to Australia's electronic music sphere and is likely to suggest many possibilities to the next generation of interactive composers and improvisers.

Improvised music usually begs for an audience to complete an interactive and emotional circuit. That seems less essential with electronically generated improvisation. Not only may the increased control over sounds and their interrelationships make the studio a more ideal crucible than the concert hall, but the home-listening room may be a better place in which to absorb it.

Play this through a good hi-fi and the sounds, despite their starkness, will make love to your speakers.

Armed with sophisticated computers and programs, Roger Dean and Greg White sustain drama and suspense over the one-hour improvising trajectory of Memeing ex Cathedra, exhibiting acute instincts for application of the arts of tension and release, coherence and surprise, and preconception and extemporisation.

Before this is the fully composed PianoStones, in which juxtaposed sounds of handled stones and piano gradually metamorphose into each other.

Extraordinary.