This piece keeps its secrets via isorhythms and mean-tempered scales. Resist the urge to hear it as an orientalized keyboard sonata. It is less “finger drumming” and more like angry button mashing. QWERTY gets reconfigured as an isomorphic keyboard. Each keystate is a switch in the rhythm sequence waiting to be turned on, waiting for you to be turned off by the repetitiveness. Can you follow the interlocking patterns, the unrelated crossrhythms and hear the full picture? When plucked notes decay into datavapour, when trackpad modulations morph the spectrum, when the rhythmic nodes of the hidden beat ping pong across the loudspeaker array, that’s when the message is revealed. These sounds have to be soaked up by your entire body, this is music for the distributed brain.
This piece is performed using a custom SuperCollider patch that transforms the laptop keyboard into an isomorphic keyboard layout. Each button press triggers a sound and simultaneously generates one of three colours (black, red, or gold) at random. The sound is processed through a 310ms delay, which the performer must actively play against/with.
The resulting patterns fall in and out of sync with each other, the pulse oscillates between stability and instability. This mechanical duet between performed sound and delayed sound can feel like acting out a scene with yourself in a hall of mirrors, where you're constantly reacting to your present actions in the immediate future.