For part 2 of my interview with artist Tristan Perich, he talks about the complexities of 1-bit music composition, his preferred mode of music consumption, and the artists who have and continue to inspire him.
If you haven't read the first half of this interview, you should do so by clicking HERE. I've also included a little excerpt from the introduction of that portion to serve as a recap and segue to the Q/A that follows.
Inspired by the aesthetics of math and physics, Tristan Perich melds acoustic and electronic music with physical and digital mediums in his art. Most recently, he created 1-Bit Symphony, the second installment in his exploration of the “relationship between physical and electronic sound…juxtaposing the grand form of classical symphony with the minimal nature of 1-bit circuitry.” His first foray into such experimentation was his similarly-named 1-Bit Music, completed in 2006.
Condensing the
complexities of a symphony into a 1-bit audio file creates a special kind of
unlikely marriage; it’s nearly unsettling in this confined space. Without
letting the cat out of the bag, so to speak, what do you feel this says about
our notions or predispositions for orchestral compositions, digital music, and
where and how each is made suitable for our tastes?
Tristan Perich: Until relatively recently, the
history of composition has been writing music for instruments, growing bolder
and larger towards the symphony orchestra and the opera. Composers, myself
included, still write for these ensembles because we feel they offer us
something meaningful, like how painting is still an artistic medium. There will
always be more to say for these media. Their identities change with us. Many
electronic musicians consider electronics their instrument, and this is how I
see my work too. My own goal is to try to understand the mechanism in the
electronics, and to look at how the abstract world of logic and code interfaces
with our own physical world, via speakers in my music, or pen-on-paper drawings
or cathode-ray televisions in my visual work. Writing for orchestra today need
not be antiquated, and I imagine audiences will continue to seek out live music
in the face of a more thoroughly digitally mediated lifestyle. Classical music
has a fragility that is especially appealing as a rare, live experience.
When listening to music,
what is your preferred mode of consumption? Headphones with an iPod? A CD
stereo system in your apartment? A record player in a room with hard wood
floors? Do you know why?
Perhaps a little hypocritical
of me, I consume most of my music digitally, through an iPod with closed ear
headphones or a way overpowered sound system in my studio. Strangely, the sound
system makes me hyper aware of the playback because the speakers never break a
sweat. I think music sounds best when played at a volume that just supersedes
the output capacity of the speakers themselves, which is maybe why '80s boom
boxes were so visceral an experience. I don't own a record player. I'm not an
acoustic audiophile, though I insist on lossless audio compression when I can.
I think this pile of contradictions is a result of the schizophrenia of growing
up in the '90s, witnessing the transition from physical media (CDs) to ephemeral
media (mp3s), coupled perhaps with the transition from dialup to broadband. I
used to love the crappy mono compression of MySpace tracks and I cherish my
corrupted mp3s from the early days of Napster. I love it all.
Who are your favorite
composers? Classical, pop, contemporary or otherwise...
Early Philip Glass and Steve
Reich are canonical and were part of my childhood listening on account of my
parents' adventurous listening. Later on, composers like David Lang, Henryk
Gorecki, Morton Feldman, John Cage, of course. On the non-scored side: minimal
electronic artists like Ryoji Ikeda, Carsten Nicolai, SND. And of course,
artists like DJ Shadow, Underworld, Stereolab and Portishead were extremely
influential early on.
What are you working on
presently?
I have a number of audio
sculptures I'm working on that break down sound in various ways. The first that
I finished, Interval Studies, are aluminum panels with around 50 to 100
speakers on each that each emit a single 1-bit tone. Cumulatively their pitches
microtonally span musical intervals, like a half step, dividing it into dozens
of slivers and presenting them at individual points in space, like a window on
the spectrum of frequency. There are a few other versions, like one with around
1,500 speakers that was commissioned by Rhizome, which I'm working to finish
this Fall.
Tristan Perich: Interval Studies (Part 2: Interview) from Tristan Perich on Vimeo.
What excites you most about 1-Bit Symphony?
What excited me most was
getting a fresh opportunity to write 1-bit music. Aside from all the conceptual
reasons for it, I'm ultimately really inspired by the primitive, gritty,
electronic sound. I just wanted to take some time to thoroughly explore that.
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