6:09 (Seh-o-lee-ah) For Lisa and LeoT. A musical experiment that didn't turn out the way I expected it to..... but then again, what does?

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(Seh-o-lee-ah) This piece, unlike the rest of my musical "experiments", has ended up posted. The rest just get thrown into a heap, where they remain until salvagable parts are removed for use in "not as experimental" pieces.

The initial idea was to incorporate the idea of Brian Eno's self composing music with Bach's interest in developing themes that spelled out his name. My friends Leo and Lisa had been recently married and I thought it would be interesting to spell out their names with a theme. Middle C was the starting point and given the letter value of c. The rest of the letters just followed the notes around middle C. L as the common letter became the drone. It was doubled with a lower octave. The rest of the letters formed the theme in single notes and two note groupings. As self composing music can go on for hours, a stipulated length of time was arbitrarily set. Likewise, the single notes and two note groupings of the theme were each given an arbitrary, but different, unit of time in which they would repeat. All of this is within the original length of time set for the piece to develop. I played the original theme and then set the piece to repeat. In a little piece of serendipidy, the original phrase gets repeated at the end of the set length of time. The piece wrote itself an ending that brought the original theme about full circle.

So now what? I found all this interesting from my point of view, but it's not really a dynamic piece to hold peoples interest. The piece is very atmospheric. Much more suited to an art installation than as a stand alone piece. So I decided to create an atmosphere where this piece would be played.

Imagine an art installation in a second floor loft. It's the hottest day in July and the air conditioning has broken down. All the loft windows are open to try and keep the air moving. But as such, all the sounds of the city come in with the air. As you move through the installation, there are two other people there who are holding a conversation. They move about. You move about. What you hear is the mix of all the sounds merging together. Yet there is a sense of order in it all. You have the ability to focus on whatever aspect of it you choose to. The piece has now become a(n imaginary) snapshot in time.

So, which has become the piece? The original self composing theme? Or the specific atmosphere in which the self composing theme stands? That's something you will have to decide for yourself.

The conversation snippets were taken from an interview of Brion Gysin by Genesis P-Orridge. Phrases were pulled out of the interview and "cut up" to create another scenario. Rather poetic I thought. If you're not familiar with Brion Gysin, I highly recommend looking him up. The interview was taken from Issue 3 of The Electric Newspaper, put together by the wonderful Genesis P-Orridge. The audio snippets of The Electric Newspaper(s) are available for anyone to use in their own music.

So, why name the piece Seollia? Well, I've told you too much already. Just put on some headphones, close your eyes and move towards the sound.....