The world premieres of the infinitary computer animation "NUR" and the accompanying infinitary computer sound composition "Soliton(e) Star" were given at Diapason Gallery (NYC) for the celebration of La Monte Young’s 70th birthday in 2005. Swedish-American composer, mathematician, and philosopher Catherine Christer Hennix, respected for the transcendental power of her drone pieces, has since used the venerable tradition of the pentatonic blues scale to extend this installation for an ensemble comprised of distinguished instrumentalists.
"Nur" and the "Soliton(e) Star" serve as the starting point for "Blues Al-Dhikr al-Salam" (meaning remembrance of divine equillibrium) – a 4-hour live exploration of the modal scales performed in just intonation by the 7-piece Chora(s)san Time-Court Mirage ensemble that includes a stunning array of microtonal instruments.
"A ›solitary wave‹ or ›soliton‹ is an example of an excitable medium which responds dynamically to vibrational variations in the environment as it travels forward in time. The soliton has, however, no memory, but it recovers its initial form after each vibrational interaction and proceeds in time as if it had never been disturbed or exited by vibrations from the past. When confined to a large cavity, such as the interior of a chamber hall, the soliton becomes a ›solitone‹, coherently interacting with itself in the form of standing waves continuously reflected from the walls of their spatial confinement. These compositions were originally scored for quartz crystals and analog electronic circuits. Corresponding digital compositions, scored for the first computer at EMS (SR’s digital electronic studio in Stockholm), were all given the title ›Fixed Points‹ (alluding to Brouwer’s fixed point theorem) and they initiated my concept of electronic ›Infinity Compositions‹, compositions without an end sustained by algorithmically controlled, continuous binary calculations." – from Revisiting Brouwer’s Lattice 30 Years Later (2005) by Catherine Christer Hennix.
Based on earnest science and executed with intuitive sensitivity, the actual embodiment of the work is highly dependent on the improvising musician’s interaction with the mixed media environment, the space within which the performance is situated, and the performers’ interaction among each other. It is a dynamic system built from multiple interreacting components that are held in a tenuous equilibrium.
The mind-altering and truly psychedelic power of Blues Al-Dhikr al-Salam, the latest in a series of "Infinity Compositions" (pieces without beginning or end), stands strong in the tradition of American Minimalism as originated by La Monte Young’s Theatre of Eternal Music. The repetition, the everchanging / neverchanging drone, folds the linear concept of time into the ecstasy of an infinite spiral, thus breaking open the obsessively-timed and goal-oriented operations of our contemporary societies to connect to a metaphysical, timeless continuum.
For CTM.12, "Nur" and the "Soliton(e) Star" serve as the starting point for "Blues Al-Dhikr al-Salam" (meaning remembrance of divine equilibrium) – a 4-hour live exploration of the modal scales performed with precise intonation by the 7-piece Chora(s)san Time-Court Mirage ensemble that includes a stunning array of microtonal instruments:
Catherine Christer Hennix (SE) – voice, computer, sine waves, live electronics Amelia Cuni (IT) – solo voice Franz Hautzinger (AT) – microtonal trumpe Robin Hayward (UK) – microtonal tuba Hilary Jeffery (UK) – trombone Ralf Meinz (DE) – live sound, live electronic Paul Schwingenschlögl (AT) – flugelhorn, trumpet
The Chora(s)san Time-Court Mirage - 14. August 2011 - second set @ grimmuseum by cchennix