electrocd

Track listing detail

La vie mécanique

Åke Parmerud

  • Year of composition: 2004
  • Duration: 12:52
  • Instrumentation: 5.1-channel fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Ymx média
  • Commission: IMEB
  • ISWC: T2050131160

Stereo

ISRC CAD501510004

  • 44,1 kHz, 24 bits

La vie mécanique is an acousmatic composition dedicated to the world of sounds emanating from mechanical machines and tools. Living in a modern Western society today means that you are more or less constantly exposed to sounds that are the result of human inventions. It seems that for every little thing meant to make our lives more comfortable there is yet another noise added to the acoustic environment in which we live. In a sense, composing this work was a way of exorcising the madness of the sound pollution surrounding us everyday.

La vie mécanique is also a sonic comment on the idea of living matter as an “organic machine.” The body (so far unsuccessfully) viewed as a structure that may be deconstructed into increasingly smaller units and finally explained as a very sophisticated robot. The piece is built, using only sounds from various kinds of machinery (mechanical, electrical, etc.), as a kind of storyline describing the birth, death and rebirth of a mechanical life structure. The piece also, in a sense, alludes to the birth and death of aesthetic values connected to the use of machines as tools for making music.

Starting off in a style of electroacoustics, building through the increasing use of repetition and rhythm, ending in a style reminiscent of electronica or techno, this piece marks a kind of “rite of passage,” at least for me personally as a composer raised in the modernistic tradition.

[iv-15]


La vie mécanique [The Mechanical Life] was realized in 2004 at the Charybde studio of the Institut international de musique électroacoustique de Bourges (IMEB, France) and premiered on June 10, 2005 during the Synthèse festival (Bourges, France). The piece was commissioned by the IMEB. La vie mécanique was awarded one of the Special Prizes at the Giga-Hertz-Preis 2008 (Karlsruhe, Germany).

Composition

Premiere

  • June 10, 2005, Synthèse 2005: Concert, Bourges (Cher, France)

Awards


Grooves

Åke Parmerud

  • Year of composition: 2011
  • Duration: 9:11
  • Instrumentation: multichannel fixed medium (Klangdom)
  • Publisher(s): Ymx média
  • ISWC: T9104667585

Stereo

ISRC CAD501510005

  • 44,1 kHz, 24 bits

When my German friend Kai Hanekken proposed that I make a composition using vinyl sounds I was sceptical at first. This idea has been used and abused by (especially) electronica in the mid-80s and onward; it is by now a cliché par excellence and I felt it to be a rather pointless undertaking. However, thinking a little bit further, two things struck me. First, I realized that no composition (that I have heard of) had really gone deep into the investigation and exploration of vinyl noises before, so that there was in fact a rather virgin field hiding therein. Second, just because of its obvious cliché status, the idea could be worthwhile, if I could somehow twist it in a new and original fashion.

When Kai then offered me to digitize all of the various vinyl noises from his large vinyl collection I could not resist the idea anymore. I would have access to a very large amount of material that I would not have been able to extract myself (not to mention that I probably would not have had the time nor the energy), and when I finally had the chance to create it in the 43-channel Klangdome of the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany), the game was on.

It came out as the single most hardcore piece I ever did to this date. Rough, aggressive, dark and generally obnoxious but in a rather pleasant way (in my mind).

I wanted the piece to gradually get to the point of “the ultimate crackle” spreading the vinyl noise over the full frequency spectrum and in the full volume of space. This can of course only be made in a rather big multichannel sound system so in its stereo version, the sound image gets very dense, overcompact and even more ear scattering than intended. Feel free to listen and like or dislike it, but remember to play it loud!

[iv-15]


Grooves was realized in May 2011 with the 43-channel Klangdome of the ZKM_Kubus of the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany). Thanks to Kai Hanekken and the ZKM.

Composition


Electric Birds

Åke Parmerud

  • Year of composition: 2014
  • Duration: 11:13
  • Instrumentation: 8-channel fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Ymx média
  • Commission: Ina-GRM
  • ISWC: T9138579256

Stereo

ISRC CAD501510006

  • 44,1 kHz, 24 bits

At some point in time I promised myself never to make a piece based on bird sounds; maybe one of the most overexploited sound material in electroacoustic music. I have also promised myself never to write a piece for guitar, never ever a piece for harpsichord and a couple of other no-no projects. I have broken all of those solemn promises for one reason or another.

So now I have broken the “no birds piece” promise as well… because I met a New Zealand visual artist in Colombia who introduced me to recordings of bird sounds from his native country. Those were amazing. Some of these birds sounded completely electric or maybe like an animal from another planet. I simply could not resist!

In the first half of the piece, almost all sounds are unaltered. Even the bass sounds in the beginning are natural and are from an apparently quite small bird. How that is acoustically possible is a mystery. Nature is indeed awesome. It is only towards the second half of the piece that I started to push the original sounds into the processing universe.

[iv-15]


Electric Birds was realized in 2012 at the studio of the GRM in Paris (France) and premiered on January 14, 2014 as part of the Multiphonies series presented by the Ina-GRM at the Auditorium Saint-Germain of the MPAA (Paris, France). The piece was commissioned by the Ina-GRM.

Composition

Premiere

  • January 14, 2014, Multiphonies 2013-14: Akousma, Auditorium Saint-Germain — MPAA, Paris (France)

Growl!

Åke Parmerud / Axel Widén

  • Year of composition: 2014-15
  • Duration: 12:43
  • Instrumentation: stereo fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Ymx média
  • Commission: Musiques & Recherches
  • ISWC: T9152276841 / T9247810419

Stereo

ISRC CAD501510007

  • 44,1 kHz, 24 bits

Metal music is big in Sweden. Since my youngest son is playing in a band, I could not avoid the tradition even if I wanted to. Instead I got fascinated by the vocal technique used by the so-called “screamers” or “growlers,” which is a kind of natural vocal distortion that gives the impression that the singer is ripping apart his vocal cords.

I suddenly had the urge to make a piece for a “growlers choir,” something I’ve never heard (and few others have). My son managed to get me four of the best growlers from my hometown to line up for a recording session. I also asked one of them to write some appropriately dystopic lyrics.

Metal aficionados always claim the importance of lyrics although it is most of the time impossible to understand any of the words. This is also true for Growl!. However, I chose to put emphasis on two lines that are central to the metal dystopia: “Hell is us; Die we must,” a phrase that seems to have a lot of relevance in the light of climate change, international political crises, and human overpopulation.

Growl! came out as a mix between metal, electroacoustic, and electronica musical styles.

[iv-15]


Growl! was realized in 2014 at the Métamorphoses d’Orphée studio of Musiques & Recherches in Ohain (Belgium), and premiered on February 11, 2015 at Espace Senghor in Brussels (Belgium). The piece was commissioned by Musiques & Recherches. Thanks to recorded vocalists: Henrik Blomqvist, Alexander Andersson, Aron Parmerud, and Axel Widén.

Composition

Premiere

  • February 11, 2015, Créations M&R + Carte blanche à Åke Parmerud, Le Senghor, Brussels (Belgium)

Transmissions II

Åke Parmerud / Åke Parmerud

  • Year of composition: 2015
  • Duration: 19:02
  • Instrumentation: stereo fixed medium and video
  • Publisher(s): Ymx média
  • Commission: Sveriges Radio
  • ISWC: T9171925238

Stereo

ISRC CAD501510008

  • 44,1 kHz, 24 bits

Transmissions II is a continuation of the work Transmissions for choir, processing, and video written in 2012 for the choir KorVest (Bergen, Norway) in which the singers’ voices were creating/altering the visuals of the video. For Transmissions II I have further developed the various simple sound visualization techniques using different kinds of oscilloscopes. These simple interpretations are refined through a series of image processes to create more complex relations with the music.

The music of Transmissions II is composed mainly from electronic signals and noises to make a rather “raw” piece somewhat reminiscent of an earlier work titled… Raw. Some of the vinyl sound materials from Grooves are also reused here. Those are related in terms of noisiness and the sonic environment of this work gives them new identities.

Transmissions II is another piece in this ongoing stylistic development of breaking the aesthetic barriers between the electroacoustic and noise/electronica styles.

[iv-15]


Transmissions II was realized in 2015 at the composer’s studio and premiered on January 24, 2015 during the concert P2 Art’s Birthday Party 2015 at the Södra teatern (Stockholm, Sweden). The piece was commissioned by Sveriges Radio — the Swedish radio.

Composition

Premiere

  • January 24, 2015, P2 Art’s Birthday Party 2015, Södra teatern, Stockholm (Sweden)