bazss_2.0

bazss_2.0 is the fourth in a series of pieces focused on the use of a bass. The bazss series began in 2002 and resulted in a fixed media electroacoustic piece titled bazss_1.1, for 4-channel playback. In the early months of 2003 I decided to revisit a portion of the source recordings that were not used andbazss_1.2, for 5-channel playback, was the result. After a few years I decided to revisit the unused source material and created another piece to fit in the series titled bazss_interlude, for 8-channel playback. Now, it’s been a few more years since the bazss series has been worked on so I thought, why not dig through the material again to see what comes out of it. This time, the result took the form of a piece for concert bass drum and live computer processing.

What you will hear results from the use of cross-synthesis. In one section of the piece various banks of oscillators are crossed with the sound of the bass drum. The computer analyzes amplitude and frequency information from the drum and this information is used to control and playback the oscillators, while also being crossed together in the spectral domain. Another section of the piece uses recordings of a poet, riffing on the word bass, and is crossed with spectral information derived from the analysis of the bass drum. Using Max/MSP, I created the processing tools for this work.

I would like to thank Dr. Julie Licata for collaborating with me on this piece. She was involved in every aspect of the composition process and her insight into performance techniques was key in the development of this work.