Tristan Perich’s Single-bit Symphony
Posted by Christian Carey in File Under?, Uncategorized, Video, Vimeo, electronic musicTristan Perich
1-Bit Symphony
Cantaloupe Music (computer chip housed in jewel case)
1-Bit Symphony - just add headphones!
Electronic music composer and visual artist Tristan Perich is fascinated with 1-bit audio. 1-Bit Music, his first release for Cantaloupe back in 2006, featured a computer chip and on/off switch housed in a jewel case. Listeners looking for the CD instead found a headphone jack. All one had to do was plug in a pair of headphones, flip the switch, and voila! A fragile yet supple music, redolent with signatures of early electronica, was revealed.
Perich has expanded his use of 1-bit audio in the past few years, employing it in several collaborations with classical instrumentalists. Thus, for his next music maker in a jewel case, Perich has correspondingly expanded the ambitions of the work, having it reflect the formal issues addressed in symphonic music. The juxtaposition of 1-bit audio, and its relatively simple sound wave building blocks, with a more expansive musical design proves an oddly adorned yet appealing amalgam. Gone is symphonic bloat, replaced instead by delicate circuitry. And the artifact itself is easily the coolest physical recording medium I’ve come across in some time.
Tristan Perich: 1-Bit Symphony (Part 1: Overview) from Tristan Perich on Vimeo.
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I think that this is one of the most amazing things I’ve seen/heard in some time. He completely rethought the distribution of music. The very idea that each cd case contains a unique artifact is beautiful in and of itself. And then the music holds up.