John Bischoff: Next Tone, Please

This piece is for live performance at a computer — for each of three "harmonic phrases," the performer may select embellishments or vary the articulation of the phrases. The chords, tuned in 31-tone equal temperament, last the length of simple sub-divisions of the phrase length, with small offsets in the upper parts. This gives the harmonic progression or "unfolding...a touch of forward momentum. This elaboration of the moment of change tends to diffuse the location of a musical present and induces a kind of global experience of time." Lovely, articulated but gentle modally-tuned chords splatter in cross-rhythms across the stereo space. Occasionally one will begin pulsing, and then may be joined by another pulsing at a different rate. A surreal and elegant soundscape. ~ "Blue" Gene Tyranny, Rovi