 Premiered
at the X-space, Documenta, Kassel (1997)
This version recorded and mixed at the Giardino d'Inferno, Milan,
2004
My very first sampler, in 1986, was an Ensoniq
Mirage, a very primitive machine: it had about 2 seconds of
sampling time, 8 bit technology and the results were always surprising
(but not always in a good way). It had a display, but being Hexadecimal
I've never been that good at deciphering it. Still, I used it a lot.
After a few years of honored service, one day it decided my music
was boring and started to make some on its own, especially in
very hot weather. It'd stop obeying to any command, and start
producing lovely little note cascades, or complex and threatening
drones. The only remedy was to lower the temperature, and I remember
more than one gig with an ice bag on the Mirage. But its music
was really beautiful, everchanging yet steady and always mysterious.
I would often stop working in the studio to record these events,
and I named the author Olindo Mercier (OM).
I've used samples from these tapes in many of my pieces, and I've
seriously considered making an OM album, using those recordings
and remixing some of it. Such is the case of this piece, made
exclusively with samples from OM. It had a long genesis: first
assembled for a sound art presentation (in '97), then remade in
a more dancy version in 2000 and finally remastered (and speeded
up by about 10 bpm) in 2004: this is the version presented here. |
