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Tunnel
for 4 channel tape (11')
1995
Tunnel for four channel tape was commissioned by Warren Spears of Nyt
Dansk Danseteater for the ballet CMXCV . Another of my four channel
pieces, Cobra, was the basis for the ballet. One day Warren Spears
called me and asked if I could extend the long final drone of Cobra an
extra ten minutes. After pondering the idea, I decided to write a new
work consisting of a single long note. This task may seem simple, but
for me it meant trying to create a long drone note which would undergo
constant process of change: always the same yet never the same. I used
a number of recordings of water, fire, crowds, children at play, etc.
These recordings were processed by a computer using the programming
environment Csound to apply complex filtering to the recorded sounds.
The computer was used to extract the same note from these various sound
sources. This technique might be compared to a kind of tube or tunnel,
which, though creating no sound of its own, colors any sound passing
through it. In addition, the computer was used to create a gradual
transition and transformation from one state to the next, passing
through the tunnel. The ballet CMXCV was premiered in Copenhagen in
September 1995 .
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