Landscape with figures I
Composition of fragments
Landscape with figures I (2012) is a 16 channel endless sound installation, first shown 22th to 24th of october 2012 in Studio A, Rokkans Hus, Bergen (Artistic Research Forum). It became integrated in Landscape with figures II, as variable sound installation situations within a more fixed work.
Composing earlier works I have had parallel cycles of events in mind, which appear in new constellations in a kaleidoscopic manner. With initial outlines, detail work take over to fill bubbles of the kaleidoscope. Landscape with figures I was created as a large number of preprosessed sound fragments, as variations within a few main categories. The fragments should be complete statements alone, and work in any order or superpostion with other categories of fragments. Durations vary between a few seconds and a couple of minutes.
Constant new constellations of textures can create endless compositions.
Arne Nordheims installation Poly-Poly (1970) consisted of 6 independent tape loops. These would not meet at the same point for 102 years.[1] Landscape with figures I, with more than 1200 fragments, independently triggered in superposition and spatialized, would be a much longer composition, if the intention really was to exhaust all possibilities. This self-composing installation can work as a sketchbook for interactions between musical ideas over a long period of time.
Types of fragments
The following chapters describe different categories of textures used in this installation. Most of them are created in at least 100 variations. Sets of rules are at work; some chords fragments can be repeated up to 5 times, some soundscapes prefer to be alone, and turn other sounds off, or adjust how often a particular type of fragment occurs. Rules can contradict each other and create unpredictable situations.
