Barry Truax is a Canadian composer and professor of electroacoustic music. He is probably best known for his pioneering work with granular synthesis in the mid '80s. His compositions utilize tape music, electronics, and computer synthesis. Truax describes the distinctions as follows:
In tape music, one begins with live-recorded (or concrète) sounds, which are then manipulated and transformed; in electronic music, the sound sources are oscillators which produce audio signals by generating oscillating voltages; and in computer music, the sound material is synthesized by a numerical description of the desired sound waves, and organized through the composer's interaction with computer programs that manipulate the data structure, or "score", of the composed sound.
Androgyne features six works. "Love Songs" and "The Blind Man" were written for tape and mezzo-soprano and vocal recitation respectfully; "Arras", "Aerial" and "Androgyne" are performed on computer synthesizers; "Ascendance" was written for two-channel tape. This is a personal favorite of mine and comes highly recommended. Enjoy!
I bought the only copy of this album my favorite record store brought in. It was the first time I had ever come across electronic music by a Canadian composer. I have not heard it for at least ten years: many thanks for this!
ReplyDelete-Brian