Francis Dhomont- Sous le regard d’un soleil noir

 

A piece of Acousmatic work by the French composer Francis Dhomont from the late 70’s to the early 80’s, tires to illustrate what living with schizophrenia is like sonically. Francis recorded eight pieces of music; each piece is a journey into different aspects of this condition. This type of concept is very subjective yet very interesting to see what sounds may be produced and transformed whilst trying to emulate a mental condition or frame of mind whilst in the compositional process. Tom Schulte wrote a small review on this work.

 

“Creative in the possibilities of sound recording, French-born composer Francis Dhomont put together the material on this album between 1979 and 1981. He is both a scholar and innovator of that field of recording experimentation called "electroacoustic composition" across the Atlantic. These eight pieces become episodic as periods of French spoken word, sweeping electronic sounds, and musical instrumentation alternate in subtextually related segments. These transforming works of tape manipulation are shape-shifting phantoms of sonic ectoplasm. Amorphous and unpredictable, they become philosophical mantras, as in the repeating "I'm an individual" of "Le Moi Divise (The Divided Self)," framed in linear, unexpected aural pathways. The titles translates as "Under the Glare of a Black Sun" and in Dhomont's surreal "acousmatic" world common themes as a monologue (here, the reading in French of psychiatrist R.D. Laing) and a murmuring crowd take on strange and wondrous implications when treated and placed in succession. A single recurring note (B natural) serves to bind each piece to its predecessor. If reality is only perceptions, then a change in these perceptions can alter reality. Through mesmerizing repetition contrasted with jarring polyphony, Dhomont artfully serves to make the common and real uncommon and unreal. The album becomes an intrapersonal voyage. Tom Schulte.

 

The spoken word aspect of the pieces is really intriguing, as I have approached this in various pieces of electronica I have composed in the past, ranging from subjects of mental illness to Chaos theory, time travel and alleged alien abduction.

 

The Domont piece titled Arreti Arreti elle me tue, (stop it, stop it, she’s killing me,) begins with sounds that resemble deep strings or singing bowls from the outset, then we have some spoken word content in French, the piece goes on to play sounds which sounds like computer audio glitching.

 

The track Engloutissement, (Engulfment.) contains some sounds from the outset of a granular nature and very like water. We hear the sounds changing rapidly and in succession but not simultaneously, again we have spoken word in this piece also.

 

Pareil a un voyageur perdu, (Like a Traveller who’s been lost,) again we have sounds of a droning nature accompanied by a glitching audio sound, also in this piece the sounds are consecutive and followed again by spoken word in French.

 

The track Implosion gives us again a glitching computer audio sound and what sounds like guitar strings being struck consecutive to each other. As the sounds drop out, we have the spoken word part to the piece. We then hear a very synthesized sounds which is preceded with a very effected spoken word section which itself sounds very glitchy.

 

Le moi divise, (The divided self,) gives us high- and low-pitched drones that sound very synthesized, climaxing in spoken word.

 

Citadelle interieure, (Inner Citadel,) contains multiple sounds that are heavily effected by reverb and some vocal that sounds as though run though a vocoder, we then get very reverbed crowd noises, again this piece is showing sounds in a consecutive nature.

 

Petrification contains very synthesized sounds along with some granular audio, we hear almost immediately in the piece both male and female spoken word.

 

Le message quand vient le soir, (The message at the coming of night,) sounds like the stretching and plucking of elastic bands very effected with reverb, there is a long spoken word passage, which brings the piece into high pitched synthesized sounds.

 

“Some of the sound processing techniques employed may sound a bit artificial today, e.g., the low pass and high pass filtering of the voice. The use of amplitude envelopes on natural time varying sounds eliminates important temporal cues”. Cortical Art.

 

As I will discuss I have found this concept very inspiring in a subjective manner and have tried to emulate the philosophy behind these pieces in my second piece Start Up. I will go into this further.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What are Found Sounds?

  This process can be referred to as sampling, but this can be an umbrella term for many different processes. I am interested in found sound; a 'non-musical' sound used creatively in a piece of music . These sounds in the environment c an be captured using a recording device such as a field recorder. Acousmatic music, Acousmatic- Referring to a sound that has no visually identifiable cause. Referring to Pythagorean disciples who for years listened to his lectures from behind a curtain, unable to see him. Acousmatic music often makes use of found sounds – environmental sounds or objects used in the recording studio. The sound object is created when numerous sounds are place consecutively in the piece of music, giving the piece a sense of movement.  
Read more

Comorbid Clashes Between Both Conditions

  Here are some comorbid symtoms that can be conflicting in the neurodiverse mind. Comorbidity is when two or more psychological (or other health symtoms,) show in the same person. ASD-   •       E xtreme interest in one topic             Need for routine       Everything in its place            Obsessive with current special interest            Thinking outside the box H yper focus                     ADHD-   H aving a short attention span and being easily distracted   M aking careless mistakes B eing unable to stick to tasks that are tedious or time-consuming C onstantly changing activity or task     H aving difficulty organising tasks     It seems that ASD traits such as interests in one subject or current s...
Read more

Introduction

  What struggles and positive aspects of living with a Neurodevelopmental condition bring to researching in the field of electronic music? To shed some light on this, I have been undertaking various reading and listening of electronic musical material and most of my work has been composing electronic music, I am going to contextualize my music into the body of works. I have decided to combine my research with two Neurodiverse conditions I live with. I have extended my reading and research to include this field. Neurodiverse people tend to be drawn towards the creative arts and I felt this would be a good research question to pursue. I have found that some traits of Autistic Spectrum Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder can hinder me not only in daily life but with my research. I will address these problems here with a look at the conditions alongside my methodology for recording music and trying to express these conditions in the music.  The Compositions ...
Read more