Score: Pareidolia I
For bass clarinet with sensors and live electronics [2012]
Duration: c.9 mins.
Notes:
Pareidolia I is the culmination of a project exploring the integration of performance-controlled sensors as a means of connecting and shaping digital sound processing through the expressive control of the performer. It is also a response to the psychological phenomenon known as pareidolia in which a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) is perceived as significant. Pareidolia can also be described as a type of apophenia (the experience of seeing meaningful patterns or connections in random or meaningless data).
In this piece, short musical gestures and sounds from the bass clarinet become entangled into the fabric of the electronics. The player is encouraged to explore how the sensors influence and ‘nudge’ the electronic reflections of their own sound into more meaningful patterns akin to shaping columns of smoke that have their own trajectory yet can be manipulated into swirling shapes by disturbing the air around them. Every performance will therefore be unique.
Pareidolia I was shortlisted for the sonic arts category in the British Composers Awards 2012 in association with BBC Radio 3.
© Patrick Nunn 2012
Press:
I find [Pareidolia I] arresting... the
actual sound is stunning with the tabla-like drumming with the keys
of the clarinet and the various ways in which he morphs the sounds.
It's also biguiling sonically listening to it."
Helen
Wallace (In Tune, BBC Radio 3, Dec 2012)
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