iii

tid-ing

verb

to drift with or as if with the tide

to rise and fall like the tide

 

Tiding II (silentium) is the second in a new collection of pieces dealing with elemental patterns. Hushed in tone, at tension are the sensations between the vast and the intimate. To my mind, sheets of electronic sound and sustained tones resemble the revolving light from a lighthouse raking the ocean’s surface.

 

As suggested by the title, the sound floods and ebbs. Interwoven layers surface and recede in a delicate balance. Transience – in both the production and perception of sound – has always moved me. Growing up, I spent countless evenings and early mornings lying on the beach listening to the ocean. And nearly as many hypnotic hours listening to the world sounding through water, my head half-submerged, patterns of distant chattering mingling with the periodic rubbing of the sea. This environmental mormorando, effortlessly yet unpredictably floating in and out of perception, is never too far from any work I do with sound.

 

While working I kept an image by Christiane Baumgartner—Deep Water (2013)—on my desk. I like her work very much, and in particular how this image evokes the perception of a liquid form through very precise means. This tension really interests me. I think—or hope—this might relate to the tunings and  especially to the rhythms in Tiding II (silentium), which aim to create something aqueous and fluid through their subtle detail.

 

Lisa Illean