If you have not already, please listen to both albums in full before voting. Share your thoughts and/or your vote in this thread. This poll will be tallied in seven days. See Tournament Spreadsheet for the full bracket. _________________ Add me on RYM
If you haven't had a chance the read the review I've been posting, you can read it here. And lemme quote the snippet from last round:
saltfish wrote:
Here's a short video of a solo Occam, which might provide better context for what to listen to on a grander scale. You can begin to hear resonance begin shortly after a minute and clear sines just after that. Shortly after sine waves become audible, the pulses of their peaks begin making a kind of polyrhythm with each other. This is a harp but this is achieved even with traditionally monophonic instruments like bassoons and saxophones. The first half of Occam Ocean 2 is structured in such a way to allow the individuals, the instrumental families, and finally the whole orchestra approach this same play with waves - which is why the fun really begins a bit after the 20 min mark on Occam Ocean 2.
This time around, I'm going to draw attention to an excerpt of Occam Ocean 2 that contains a good illustration of what to listen for and that has a lot of action: 22:00 through 31:00. I want to make clear that each instrument is playing sustained tones slowly, even the percussion section (by playing parallel rather than perpendicular to the surface). So, the undulations you hear are not from bowing or other direct action, but from the physical interaction and synthesis of the individual instrument's sound waves in space, though they tend to move in instrumental families. This might sound surgical or sterile if not for the unmatched intimacy of the composition process, which is dependent upon the relationship between the musician and their instrument and highly individualized to the performer. All of this sound wave interaction is based on harmonics, which vary from instrument to instrument based on shape and material and are the building blocks of timbre, or the character of the instrument; so the sound, interaction, and dynamism possible will very noticeably change based on the instruments involved. And, the interaction of sound waves is a physical one, so the sound, interactions, and dynamism possible will also change based on the performance space. All of this is to say, there is complete and utter consideration and unity of every facet of this music, at a level I have not otherwise seen, to simply be called drone. Which it is.
So, 22:00 through 31:00. It begins with percussive and string instruments in the forefront, building to resonance, with multiple pulses coming just from this. Around 23:40 you hear a clear synthesized sine from the whole orchestra coming through, above the other undulations, and by 25:00 it's front and center, with three clearly audible family pulses just lower in volume. And then this gives way to a high-frequency, string-like drone attempting to build resonance around 26:00, at which it's successful, creating audible sine waves by 26:40 at the forefront of the music. At which point we slowly lose the bass pulses as at least two families also begin creating their own sine waves close in frequency to the primary around 28:00. At 28:20 a unified orchestra sine wave wiggles into existence. Multiple pulses are vying for your attention between 29:00 and 30:00 - certainly one of the more active minutes in the disc. At 29:50 you here the orchestral wave wiggle in again. And by this point there's almost a four-on-the-floor pulse that's underlying everything else that sounds like a school of eels. And then by 31:00 there's a cathartic moment with the horns coming in very recognizably before the process continues with them in the lead. So what you're getting is a foundation of individual sines, which is difficult to impossible to hear depending on where you are in the recording. Family sines, which are clearly audible and interacting constantly. And orchestral sines, which are very loud and impossible to miss. Beyond the joy of musical unity, this process creates more pulses than the ear can track at once, so what you get is a complex polyrhythm created by these sine pulses which you can revisit, focus on different details, and get something new nearly every time. Give 22:00 through 31:00 another shot if you're on the fence; if you can't be bothered to give 9 minutes, listen to 29:00 through 30:00.
Elaine I found the more engaging listen, even if it had it's lulls, while Christian's offering was more consistient and immaculately crafted but I didn't really get into it much personally. So Radigue.
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