Cendres, by Bjarni Gunnarsson

Cendres

by Bjarni Gunnarsson

supported by

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

€3 EUR or more

	1.	Cendres 21:56		buy track
	2.	Polytree 21:07		buy track

about

This release represents outcomes of my recent research focusing on interrupts, intervention and dynamic algorithmic environments. It consists of two electroacoustic compositions that have previously been performed in a multichannel setting but since then extended and reworked to the stereo format found here.

Cendres was premiered on the Acousmonium at GRM, Paris in October 2019. The work highlights the relation between high-level control processes and purely computer-synthesized sounds. The working processes employed during the composition relate directly to the creation and transformation of the material as defined through SuperCollider code. The piece consists of eight different structural modules, each containing synthetic sound processes that are defined in relation to other parts. The totality of the relations results in a ‘material network’ or ‘sound configuration’ that can be activated in various ways.

Going from the SuperCollider code to a recorded fixed version, the sound processes are played, recorded but often ‘disturbed’ through manual intervention. Interrupting sounds or algorithms can be an effective way to highlight the tensions between manual and automatic behaviours. Perhaps it still remains difficult to develop algorithms that produce sounds that precisely fit the (somehow varying) intentions of someone working closely with synthetic sound. Through intervention, this tension is put to the foreground and hopefully this translates into the resulting music.

Polytree was first performed at the Institute of Sonology in June 2018. The piece is created within a custom algorithmic environment and through extensive use of waveshaping processes. It focuses on using composed waveforms for movements in time and formal structures that emerge from lower-level synthesis methods. The majority of the sound material used in the piece was created through experiments with bilateral folding (waveshaping) that is being frequency modulated through audible (high) frequencies.

Designed as iterative, the digital components that constitute ‘Polytree’, can be recomposed while they run. The importance is not where an ‘intelligence’ takes place but rather how it emerges through an exchange with any surrounding influence. A shared responsibility is favored here, where it is often unclear whether manual action or automated algorithms are behind the perceived activities.

The two pieces share an attitude of becoming through synthetic sound. They also both focus on the relations between the processes they consist of, and of the varying boundaries of what is caused by algorithms and what by manual intervention.

credits

released November 18, 2020

Original and physical release here:
sovnrecords.bandcamp.com/album/cendres

license

about

Bjarni Gunnarsson The Hague, Netherlands

Icelandic Composer/Developer involved in computer music and algorithmic composition. Performed at Tectonics, Rewire, Today's Art, Sonar and Presences Electroniques. Released on Vertical Form, 3Leaves, Granny, and Tartaruga Records. Faculty member at the Institute of Sonology. Concerned with process-based ideas. Music focused on internal activity, behaviors, fluid sound-structures or forms. ... more

discography

Upics

Jan 2023
Anticlines

Nov 2021
Cendres

Nov 2020
Volume & Void

Sep 2020
Lueur

Nov 2018
Paths

May 2016
Processes & Potentials

Oct 2013
Safn 2006-2009

Jan 2010

contact / help

Contact Bjarni Gunnarsson

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Bjarni Gunnarsson, you may also like:

Tour Mode
by Superpang

supported by 9 fans who also own “Cendres”

Probably one of the most "Big Deals" as far as I know being a BC user. For a ridiculous price—four bucks—you get 40 awesome tracks under SP's signature with all its meaning. This compilation is a really MUST-HAVE. My favorite track has been chosen by pure randomness. Enjoy this gift! sjah83
go to album
Structures for Wave Field Synthesis
by Elías Merino & Daniel del Río

supported by 9 fans who also own “Cendres”

So, wave field synthesis could really be called real life synthesis? Despite its digital original, this is so moving, so organic, that it could be some kind of garden growth - although the clanks and catanks and whirrs hints otherwise. One of the best first listens I've had in a while. Øivind Idsø
go to album
Electroacoustic Works
by IANNIS XENAKIS

supported by 9 fans who also own “Cendres”

Some of the most gripping electronic music ever made. Earl Johnson
go to album
Me and the Glassbirds
by Heejin Jang

The Doom Trip label never misses, and the latest LP from the genius Heejin Jang is a trip into thrilling industrial terror. Bandcamp New & Notable Jan 30, 2023
go to album
Raid on the White Tiger Regiment
by Sunik Kim

Sunik Kim pulls beauty and meaning out of dense yet accessible knots of textural noise and wordless chaos. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 20, 2022
go to album
Of Shadow and Substance
by Lea Bertucci

A disquieting, yet serene, reflection on industrial decay from the experimental New York-based composer. Bandcamp Album of the Day Dec 1, 2023
go to album
Universal Torus
by Zbigniew Karkowski & Brent Gutzeit

supported by 8 fans who also own “Cendres”
go to album