ArtistInfo

Austere
Pulse

Album US 2007 on Hypnos Secret Sounds label
Electronic (Abstract, Experimental, Minimal)

Taken from the liner notes: This is the third and final release in our series of "process music" Minimalist compositions, which started in 1998 e.v. with "Convergence", followed by the 2004 e.v. release of "Eco", and now the final release of the series, "Pulse". They are all ambient-styled minimal compositions following the tenents of Steve Reich's "Music as a Gradual Process" (1968) but are also enhanced to create an effect on the listener. Each composition was arranged using a technique Reich called "phasing", where each discrete piece of music, or "phrase", is allowed to overlap the same or similar phrases but slightly, almost unperceptively out of sync in time with the original, creating a slowly evolving recording that changes subtly but perceptively over its entire course. As Reich wrote: "To facilitate closely detailed listening a musical process should happen extremely gradually." All three releases are designed to be played at normal or quiet levels, and are meant to be looped or played on repeat, with each piece slowly building up from near silence, growing to a quiet crescendo, and subsiding back to a whisper, only to quietly begin again.

Musicians

Austere , US album by

ArtistInfo App

Acknowledgements

ArtistInfo for Mac, iPad, and iPhone