“Altered Images” by Pete Stollery

Image from YouTube

Title:

Altered Images

Artist(s) and People Involved:

Artist Statement:

The aesthetic images which occur in the mind of the listener during the performance of a piece of music and how they relate to the way the music is perceived are the concern of the composer. The placement of sound images in three dimensional space when performing electroacoustic music on tape over a number of loudspeakers and how this imaging relates to the way the music is perceived by the listener is the concern of the sound diffuser. As a composer and performer of electroacoustic music on tape, I wanted to create a work in which I could investigate and explore these two aspects of “image”. There is an interplay between the real image and the altered image throughout the work. Sometimes a sound may be recognized and associated with one in the real world, but these images change over time, as does their associated “meaning”. Similarly, the position of the sound image is constantly changing, sometimes slowly, at other times rapidly, and the breadth and depth of these changes are of course enhanced when the piece is performed over a multi-channel diffusion system. Altered Images was realized in the Electroacoustic Music Studios at Northern College, Aberdeen and at the University of Birmingham in August 1995. It was premiered in Montreal in January 1996.