10 minute audio-visual recording of ‘ephemeral’, four channels converted into stereo

‘Ephemeral’ is an exploration of momentary music. It is an abstract current of pitch, timbre, texture and pulse, propelled by the passing of time. Both fleeting and eternal, the ebbing and swelling of its flow are an interwoven succession of transient events. Each seamlessly growing from its past only to in turn dissolve into its future, becoming the past. The work itself thus improvises its progression. Like an ever-renewing stream, it feels its path through its aesthetic terrain with the unpredictability of a living organism. In this search for its sound, its generative algorithm is boundary as well as behaviour. It allows for the work to simply exist, an environment of infinite self-similar regeneration.

'ephemeral' installed at The London Group Open 17 (TV and wooden frame 43 x 64 cm), The Cello Factory, London, UK.

The meditative uncertainty of the work is based on its treatment of time. Human beings have a strong sensory awareness of time, a sense grounding us in the immediate reality of the moment. The mind however perceives time neither as accurate scientific measurement nor a succession of equal length intervals. A moment can stretch, or pass in a flash depending on surrounding circumstance. Within the individual conscious mind, time is a fluid entity, capable of contraction and expansion. ‘Ephemeral’ employs this notion of temporal elasticity. Its time structure thus defies regularity, is subjected to instantaneous reassessment and change. The pace of the work is in permanent flux.

The transitory nature of ‘ephemeral’ is further enhanced by its interwoven approach towards tonality, timbre and pitch. The momentary notes within the tapestry of its flow dissolve into the filaments of its frequencies. These form fleeting intervals, only to melt back into the overall texture and colour of the sound. The tonality thus seamlessly shifts between the composed structure of the tonal scale and the natural frequency relations of overtones within the played notes. This seamless interplay of notes and their timbre is further enhanced by the overall fluctuation of pitch. The base pitch of the entire arrangement, intervals and overtones, has the ability to shift. Its rising and falling thus creates fleeting layers of turbulence and small rivulets of dissonance within the otherwise harmonic flow of music.