ID#: 192

SPACES: SUSPENDED – SCATTERED (2018-2020) ; 10:40

by Javier A. Garavaglia

Independent Artist

The starting point of the composition is based on two contrasting sound categories which, as the title of the piece describes, create a tension between “scattered” and “floating” spaces in a 3D environment (e.g. a concert hall with an octophonic disposition of the speakers). While the original octophonic version (consisting of a total of 9 channels: 8 plus LFE) applies various types of spatialization techniques (for example: ambisonics, antiphonal stereo layering, etc.), the stereo version on this CD (remastered in 2024) retains as much as possible the original octophonic spatialization in its stereo image. Sounds of the composition were programmed through algorithmic sound design with ‘Supercollider’, albeit also (to a lesser extent) with ‘Csound’. Between various stable layers (e.g. via granular synthesis and different types of FM modulation), the piece presents several layers of percussive rhythms (similar to snare drum hits), which, also programmed synthetically with random generators, stand in clear contrast to the long/stable sounds, creating the aforementioned tension between “floating” and “scattered” spaces.