Electronic music now has a history, a diversity of styles — a tradition, and whether ignoring or addressing history we compose at the head of its wake. Kernel Expansion contains three interconnected sections and addresses the essence of sound in its rich multiplicity, ambiguity and schizophrenia. Sketches began by drawing on the sounds and language of the acousmatic tradition, attempting to relinquish the task of inventing a language from scratch and with the aim of freely exploring music. From these first musical sketches the language of the work then began to emerge. Interior spaces and timbres invert into exterior spaces and allusions. Rhythm, articulation and pitch planes, embedded in naturally occurring materials evolve into controlled performances of instrumental nature: a drum resonance and the birds of the Mexican Golondrinas, the clearing of winter snow and the crush of a pestle and mortar. Dualities such as these are used to connect unrelated materials until all sound condenses into a musical singularity.

Kernel Expansion was commissioned by ZKM (Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie) with support from the Norsk Kulturråd (Arts Council Norway).