Orgelton (Original)

(2009)

As one of the earlier compositions, Orgelton was directly inspired after hearing Matrix [For Rooms] by Ryoji Ikeda for the first time. It was written during my year as a master student at the University of Limerick in Ireland, using two Genelec 8050s situated in one of the smaller studio booths. Having just learned the Max/MSP programming language at the time, it can definitely be viewed as one of my first experiments done using the language.

Listen to the composition here:

The composition in essence is a decomposition of a harmonic series, hence the name. But, very early, it toys with ideas of spatialisation and the fact that I'm using loudspeakers by using not only the volume of each overtone as a compositional parameter, but also their inter-stereo detuning and phase relationships. By doing so, the rather static tone springs to life and constantly changes as it remains fixed on a single pitch. The ability to play a tone indefinitely is also commonly associated with organs, most famously exploited by John Cage's OrganĀ²/ASLSP.

A third influence that had a heavy impact on the creation of this piece were drones, especially those composed by La Monte Young and Phil Niblock. Orgelton is a long, drawn out composition with slow development. Whoever is interested in listening to it should be prepared to take their time, as is the case with Drone music in general. The Original part in the title refers to the file name. This composition is presented as it was performed solo and alone during the late hours in the studios of DMARC at Limerick University. I remember being deeply moved by the power emanating from the 8050s when creating the recoding. I do hope this movement, both exterior and interior, transports to whomever will take the time to listen to it.