Laurie Spiegel (1945), a lute and banjo player by training, is a
Chicago-born and
New York-based composer of
computer music who reacted to the futurism and dadaism of the early pioneers by
developing an original aesthetic borrowed from folk music, creating relatively
atmospheric and melodic music via arcane mathematical algorithms.
Her early experiments with musique concrete include Introit (1973),
Water Music (1974),
Music For A Garden Of Electronic Delights (1976).
Her mature and original approach is documented by the four pieces dating from 1974-76 collected on Expanding Universe (Philo, 1980).
The minimalist repetition of Patchwork (1974) is couple to a gradual
warping of timbres. As the pulsing pattern expands and contracts, as the timbres
rise and descend, the listener falls under the spell of different levels
of hypnosis. It sounds like Terry Riley's Rainbow in Curved Air without
the melody. It also embodies the sound of machine music before the invention of
industrial music.
Other facets are explored in the dilated, om-like Old Wave (1975) and
in the aquatic refractions and fade-outs of Pentachrome (1974).
The floating drones of The Expanding Universe (1975) evoke the same
awe-inspiring eternity of Klaus Schulze's
cosmic music. Masses of static "melodies" (stillborn melodies, that never
grow to be one) keep repeating their distant wail, echoed from galaxy to
galaxy, the same way that
Brian Eno's ambient music does not conclude.
A much darker, imploding universe is exhibited by the computer works
composed between 1987 and 1990, collected on
Unseen Worlds (Scarlet, 1991 - Aesthetic Engineering, 1994):
Three Sonic Spaces (1989),
Finding Voice (1988),
The Hollows (1990),
Two Archetypes: Hall of Mirrors, Hurricane's Eye (1990),
Sound Zones (1990),
Riding The Storm (1990),
Two Intellectual Interludes (Data and Process) (1990),
A Harmonic Algorithm (1981),
Passage (1987).
Obsolete Systems (Electronic Music Foundation, 2001)
offers a retrospective of electronic works (mostly for analog synthesizers)
composed between 1970 and 1983:
Five Short Visits to Different Worlds (1977),
Voices Within: A Requiem (1979),
Three Modal Pieces: A Cosmos, A Legend, A Myth (1983).
She has also composed soundtracks for videos, films and ballets
(The Library Of Babel, 1972;
White Devil, 1972;
The House Of Bernarda Alba, 1973;
Emma, 1975;
Narcissicon, 1976;
East River, 1976;
Unicorn, 1982;
Precious Metal Variations, 1983;
Over Time, 1984;
Point McLeyvier, 1984;
Gravity's Joke, 1985;
Rain Pieces, 1985;
Dissipative Fantasies, 1986;
Music for Signals, 1986;
Dryads, 1988; Continuous Transformations, 1990; A Volume of Three Dimensional, 1990).
She also composed
An Isorhythmic Double Canon (1979) for string quartet,
A Canon (1980) for chamber ensemble and computer,
Phantoms (1980) for chamber ensemble and tape,
Hearing Things (1983) for chamber orchestra,
etc.
Harmonices Mundi (Table Of The Elements, 2004) contains her 1975
composition for geometric patterns of solemn computer tones.
The single
Donnie and Laurie (2018) documents a propulsive collaboration
with drummer Don Christensen of the
Contortions.
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