Located in the UK
Located in the USA
Located in Europe
- John Luther Adams
Strange and Sacred Noise (1997)
- Taiga Press (BMI) (World)
Programme Note
Noise - complex, aperiodic sound - touches and moves us in profound and mysterious ways. Strange and Sacred Noise is a celebration of noise as a metaphor for turbulent phenomena in the world around us, and a gateway to ecstatic experience.
Grounded in the elemental violence of nature and the self-similar forms of linear fractals, this music is a convergence of sonic geography and sonic geometry. Each piece in the cycle is conceived as its own distinct and separate sound world, evoking the immediacy and presence of a place.
These soundscapes are inspired by and dedicated to composers who have explored strange new worlds of sound.
...dust into dust... is a sonic equivalent of the Cantor dust - a fractal model of the behavior of electrical noise - articulated by 2 snare drums and 2 fields drums.
solitary and time-breaking waves (after James Tenney) is scored for 4 tam-tams. Waves of intensity with varied periods gradually drift together cresting in a massive tsunami of sound.
velocities crossing in phase space (after Conlon Nancarrow and Peter Garland) - for 6 tom-toms and 4 bass drums - is a canon in continuous waves of acceleration and ritardando, modeled after Nancarrow's Canon X and Garland's Meditation on Thunder.
triadic iteration lattices (to Edgard Varése and Alvin Lucier) - for four sirens - traverses an expanding field of rising and falling glissandi. The piece is modeled on the Seripenski gasket: an Eiffel-tower of reiterated, telescoping pyramids.
clusters on a quadrilateral grid (to Morton Feldman) is scored for four marimbas, four vibraphones, and four sets of orchestra bells. It is a sounding of the Menger Sponge: an enigmatic quadrilateral with an infinite surface area, and a volume of zero.
...and dust rising... is scored for 2 snare drums and 2 field drums. Out of silence, points of dust emerge to become relentless, reiterated noise.
Grounded in the elemental violence of nature and the self-similar forms of linear fractals, this music is a convergence of sonic geography and sonic geometry. Each piece in the cycle is conceived as its own distinct and separate sound world, evoking the immediacy and presence of a place.
These soundscapes are inspired by and dedicated to composers who have explored strange new worlds of sound.
...dust into dust... is a sonic equivalent of the Cantor dust - a fractal model of the behavior of electrical noise - articulated by 2 snare drums and 2 fields drums.
solitary and time-breaking waves (after James Tenney) is scored for 4 tam-tams. Waves of intensity with varied periods gradually drift together cresting in a massive tsunami of sound.
velocities crossing in phase space (after Conlon Nancarrow and Peter Garland) - for 6 tom-toms and 4 bass drums - is a canon in continuous waves of acceleration and ritardando, modeled after Nancarrow's Canon X and Garland's Meditation on Thunder.
triadic iteration lattices (to Edgard Varése and Alvin Lucier) - for four sirens - traverses an expanding field of rising and falling glissandi. The piece is modeled on the Seripenski gasket: an Eiffel-tower of reiterated, telescoping pyramids.
clusters on a quadrilateral grid (to Morton Feldman) is scored for four marimbas, four vibraphones, and four sets of orchestra bells. It is a sounding of the Menger Sponge: an enigmatic quadrilateral with an infinite surface area, and a volume of zero.
...and dust rising... is scored for 2 snare drums and 2 field drums. Out of silence, points of dust emerge to become relentless, reiterated noise.
Media
Reviews
“…The music seemed to enact vast and complex natural processes, as if I were witnessing, in sonic form, the solar system forming or the continents shifting. It had an incredible visceral impact…”
“…you really can’t help but fall into its entrancing rhythms… carrying the ear through sonic white water as swiftly as it floats over a subsequent movements scored for four air-raid sirens… Adams uses these timbres to speak with a degree of nuance and subtlety that pushes buttons noise acts never quite reach.”
Discography
Strange And Sacred Noise
- LabelMode Records
- Catalogue NumberMode 153
- EnsemblePercussion Group Cincinnati
- Released8th November 2005