This album is a collection of modern orchestral work that is unified through a theme. Whereas the theme in a traditional symphony is composed around a melody, or chord progression, this piece uses a concept as its theme. This concept is then applied to a number of different ideas, and through a number of different forms, to create a suite of music. The concept here is asynchronous timing. And this work explores the different ways of presenting notes and melodies in an asynchronous fashion.
Drawing inspiration from György Ligeti’s mechanical music (especially Poème Symphonique) and the work of Philip Glass and Steve Reich, this realization of ‘S1’ covers a wide range of interpretations of the basic idea, working with sound on many different levels and dimensions.
The recordings presented here have been created in the studio, solely within the digital arena of computers, sequencers, and sound generators. Most of these compositions will never be heard in a live performance since the timings are so precise they cannot be realised by human beings. And besides, any interpretation or experimentation by a musician would affect the subtleties of the piece.
It was composed between 1996 and 2007, but only released in 2016. Because "reasons".
Have a listen...
Otherwise, if you want to look behind the scenes at the methods used to compose it...
To watch a lecture I gave about the Symphony, you can see how I wrote and recorded an algorithmic symphony.
Marquis de Geek