OCULUS PART 2
In order to work with the Oculus composition and chance itself I modified a roulette wheel. The note circles in the Oculus diagram taken as sets of 3 bound a triangle. The top triangle (triangle number 1) is bounded by the notes C, A, and E comprising an A minor chord. There are 18 triangles in the Oculus composition. In a roulette wheel there’s 38 possible numbers, two of them being zero. Leaving the two zero’s alone leaves 36 possible numbers. 36 divided by 2 is 18 making the roulette wheel perfect for chance operations in the Oculus score. Doubling up each number from 1 to 18 we used the roulette wheel to define the chords we were to use.
We each took turns spinning the wheel 13 times in total and the outcome was 5, 3, 7, 14, 17, 14, 2, 15, 14, 8 , 12, 12, and 5 sequentially. From these numbers we built triads from the corresponding triangles. The triads, in order, were:
05 = F A C#
03 = A E D
07 = D C# G
14 = G F# Bb
17 = D Bb F
14 = G F# Bb
02 = A F D
15 = E D G#
14 = G F# Bb
08 = D B G
12 = C# G D
12 = C# G D
05 = F A C#
A few things that stand out are the three times that the roulette ball landed on 14. Also that the number 5 was hit first and last. These chords became a structural device for several sections in Oculus. The opening triad that is first struck and starts the piece is number 5 or F, A, and C#. Instructions to the players for the different sections were:
Play a note and only move to an adjacent note when you desire to move.
Play a numbered triad and only move to an adjacent numbered triad when you desire to move.
Only play the Blue Triads with the connecting Yellow Triad.
Only play the Red Triads with the connecting Yellow Triad.
At a certain point we will all play a specific Triad that was dictated by the Roulette Wheel.
We used a metronome to be precise (as one’s timing is) as to each of our changes.
We invited the musician Zach Layton to join us so we would have four guitarists for the score. I thought Zach would be a perfect addition to realize Markus' score and I quote; “Zach Layton is a guitarist, composer, curator, improviser, teacher and video artist based in Brooklyn. His work investigates unconscious autonomic musical impulses via improvisation and indeterminacy. Using an EEG, which monitors brainwave signal in realtime, he is able to sonify and visualize this stream of unconscious data. His music involves a combination of digital and analog processes, field recordings and electric guitar played in non-standard tunings.” This is the bio on his Soundcloud page. I also know him to have a killer mod synth unit.
http://www.zachlaytonindustries.com is a link to his webpage. I’ve played a few times with Zach as part of the multi disciplinary group Optipus headed by the one and only Bradley Eros. The link to the video shows us beginning to work on the piece which started out awkwardly as we’re all trying to find our footing but soon we did and that is revealed in the final piece on the record.
But for all the intense descriptions in the bio, Zach also just loves playing the guitar and playing music. When he first arrived Tony started playing some beautiful spacey guitar and we all jumped in and improvised along. This improvisation was edited down and is called Coda on the record.
Till next time,
Richard