R(and)OM Memories (Milano): Soundspecies
"Soundspecies"



Christina Kubisch: Vocals, Flutes (Alto, C-flute, Piccolo), Synthesizer.
Roberto Laneri: Vocals, Didgeridoo, Saxophone, Synthesizer, Tritonhorn, Delay.
Riccardo Sinigaglia: Tapes, Mixer, Video.

R(and)OM MEMORIES:
Computer language and antique mantras. Synthesis of electronics, overtone singing, ethnic instruments, video, and synthesizers.
Musical elements of the past are merged with the "future" of "ethno-electronics". Nature and technology are not separated. Computer graphics is based on ancient visual symbols changing into new magic images on the monitor on their own. R(and)OM Memories strives to integrate various instruments (from the Australian Didgeridoo to the electronically controlled sampler), various techniques, timbres, and visual elements. The compositions are a synthesis of preprogrammed processes and live improvisations. The program consists of pieces by the individual musicians and of compositions by the group.

RINGSPIEL (MUSIC FOR OPUS)
Ringspiel is an ambient music composition and it has been realized with a piano. This instrument has been used in order to create a basic harmonic stream, got by elaborating the typical percussive sound of the piano into a continuum similar to the organ.

Thus, harmonic sounds obtained from a guitar are put in the main stream; this permits a slow evolution with an endless dephasing among the different melodic lines. The guitar emitted just six harmonics while the others are obtained by a ring-tape and a tape speed elaboration.
Thanks to Paolo Caliari for playing the guitar.

MINIMA (MUSIC)
The computer music of minima has been built up on the previous images. While Ringspiel and Opus are independent between them, this music gets its sense just by linking with the images.
Digital audio-visual composition
Hardware: Yamaha CX5 Computer
Software: Riccardo Sinigaglia, Yamaha Voicing Program
September, 1985, Version 1.0 PAL, COLOR, 13'

SYMBOL
is a composition where music and images have been conceived together and are both produced by the Yamaha CX5M computer. Symbol is built up on two basic images which transform themselves and create many combinations, with a taste for geometric decoration that has always been present and that can be found in many cultures often geographically and temporarily far from each other. The movement has been obtained by math functions which create sine waves, circles, spirals and their variations. The play between horizontal and vertical lines tends to create hypnotic effects.

Great care has been placed on the creation of musical sounds and on sliding frequences that follow the movement of the configurations on the screen. Sounds and rhythm call for ancestral memories. Many sounds seem to come from "primitive" instruments (while they are produced by computer).

In this way it is possible to create "certain" kinds of particular sounds which seem to slide from the space-future towards the primitive-ancestral, united by the same difference from the mass-media man experience, accustomed to live in a superficial musical world. McLuhan's times are changed and today I think that computers and videos can permit cultural and spiritual growth. They are just instruments, with many possibilities that we can use in order to realize our archetypes.