Employing soft, hushed—almost imperceptible—high frequencies, bursts, static and quiet low shifting tones, the compositions of Series explore an implied silence that is not silent—a quietness that belies the activity and energy of the sounds. Compositional focus often occurs in the space between the sounds—the duration and meaning, which lay between barely audible events.

The sounds are treated with a sculptural integrity, revealing their aural and visual aspects. Each discrete crackle and hiss is endowed with a physicality, nearly transparent. Between the sound and the silence, the listener can begin to discern patterns in the static or the gentle bass pulses, which at first seem only insinuations of sound.

No narrative is present in these patterns—except that implied by the compositions’ existence in time and the levels and plateaus serving as events within that temporal space. In this sense, rhythm is created, thus repetition becomes a predominating compositional quality in a number of the works. Knowable cycles slowly develop, but in that discernment of pattern comes the listeners’ variances in perception. In experiencing a stretched out and slowed down serial composition requiring auditory focus, anticipation of the next sound’s arrival makes even the faintest change in rhythm or introduction of alternate events significant and the spaces in between sounds concrete.

While separate in creation and capable of isolation, the works on Series are interrelated in respect to process and the period of their construction. Dissimilar in some respects, through acts of reduction and structure, each work bears an elemental relationship to the others. Series, like much of Chartier’s work, explores the interdependence and focus required of sound, silence and the act of listening.