Sonic Nostalgia and the Flow of Virtualities

Max Ernst, Birth of a Galaxy 1969

Dimitris Barnias

Deliverance

Deliverance invites listeners to immerse themselves in a dynamic soundscape that is both familiar and uncanny, expansive yet intimate. The piece evolved around a binary tree sequencer which shapes various basic music parameters.

Deliverance is a small part of my ongoing research about autonomous music systems. It is primarily designed for a quadraphonic playback; however, I have provided here a stereo version. I hope you enjoy

Dimitris Barnias

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Deliverance is a minimalistic piece of sound art that brings to the listener an experience that is totalizing in its vast scope. The words “vast scope” implies a measurable space and therefore may not be a suitable descriptive phrase but, unfortunately, language tends to break down when evoking such immeasurable notions. I’m left with little choice when trying to speak of something that is so apophatic in its nature.

I’m forced to break things down, dismantle something irreducible into structures that allow themselves to be observed, measured, analyzed, worked out. This leads me no choice but to perform my little dance about architecture when talking about Deliverance.

When writing about feelings and sensations in music, I must, in some respect remove a part of me so it’s on the outside looking in. Deliverance is a work that, to continue writing about it, I must do that very thing–remove myself from the living breathing core of the sounds to a position above (or below, or to its side). To put myself inside it, merge with it, all writing would fail, (although poetics may give the writer a fighting chance) so I’m relegated to granting myself a god-like view from the giant window in the sky, measuring stick in one hand and microscope in the other. Luckily you, the listener may not find yourself in this predicament. No one is telling you to do the dance I’m currently performing.

Unless you have the ears of an Elephant or the hearing apparatus of the Greater Wax Moth, my suggestion (not validated by the artist) would be to listen to this piece (through headphones of course) at higher volume levels than you might otherwise. That will provide the needed boost for the journey from the ears, up to the brain, disseminated though the nervous system and culminating in a state depended on each of us, individually. Voila—your own private Idaho based on, among other things, your willingness to engage and your ability to imagine what could have been, what is and, what will be.

You may, if you’re lucky, find the experience on offer a non-space of entropic delights. A non-space that is entirely dependent on emotional states that are impossible to measure. At the same time, an experience of nostalgia, virtuality and realness . A non-space that is yours and yours alone, always moving, always changing, and always dependent on your inner being. I would describe this as “your time”.

As it so happens, “my time” when engaging with Deliverance, is vivid with detail. Shapes and forms are legion, colors are plentiful, the physical body that I know is transformed by the frequencies (that low end is exquisite), and movements and change are perpetual. Time is when I choose it to be, and space is subservient to my demands.

But here I am dancing about architecture again. I can only suggest drawing your own map to Idaho—the things you’ll find!

Michael Eisenberg

As a PhD candidate in the Department of Music Technology and Acoustics at the Hellenic Mediterranean Uni, I am focusing my research on the algorithmic composition of soundscapes. Using the music programming language Pure Data, I am developing software aiming at autonomous environmental compositions as part of my doctoral research.

Simultaneously, I also enjoy performing live in free improvisation concerts either as a solo artist or through collaborations. I have collaborated with artists from diverse fields, including dance and theater groups, video art creators and of course musicians. My works have been presented at Greek and international festivals, and I am also an active member of the Hellenic Association of Electroacoustic Music Composers (ESSIM)

Dimitris Barnias

If you are interested in pursuing further investigations into Dimitris’ music (and video), please check out his webpage. Additionally, he has a bandcamp page that’s loaded with Acousmatic goodness.