Being Time by Richard Glover Bryn Harrison Jennie Gottschalk

Author:Richard Glover,Bryn Harrison,Jennie Gottschalk
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA

Postlude to Chapter Four

Bryn Harrison

The three tracks by Ryoji Ikeda that Richard presents in Chapter 4 set up, for me, an interesting dichotomy. On the one hand, there is a mechanized conception of time—what Richard describes as an “abstracted exploration into the sculpting and processing of individual sonic pulses”—strictly iterative and highly periodic, and on the other there is our own subjective experience of time—how we make sense of such persistent regularity. Jennie and I spent a great deal of time discussing these aspects. She spoke to me of the strong physical effect of the music upon her, its relentless and insistent qualities, and the difficulty in preserving her “own subjectivity.” I found the listening experience less of an affront upon my psyche but similarly struggled to process what I was listening to due to the incessant nature of the music and the lack of immediate contrast across the three tracks.

As Richard tells us early in the chapter, the types of beat patterns presented are those most generally associated with electronic dance music. Here, though, Ikeda takes a more radical approach by stripping back the music to only its most essential qualities—those of pulsation and timbral manipulation. I heard distinctions in sound coming principally from timbral manipulations of these pulses, which occurred either gradually or as sudden spectral shifts. My focus was on observing the beating patterns, through which the nuances of these spectral sweeps could be observed. The three tracks are somewhat similar in presentation and, as such, gave me the impression of lab tones subjected to slightly different treatments.

Upon closer listening, however, I became aware of some clear differences in these tracks. It is not necessary to discuss the particularities of each track here as Richard outlines distinctions between each in his chapter. However, some observations of what I identified may clarify certain points made elsewhere in this postlude. The first track (track 4) opens with quiet pulsations and an identifiable high pitch, almost outside of audible range. The sonic sweeps across the frequency range are subtle, but transformative and there is a distinct sense of the music getting louder as it continues. It is difficult to tell whether this perceived increase in amplitude is due to lower frequencies becoming foregrounded over time, or due to an actual increase in volume. This gradual build cuts off abruptly at 2:51. The second track (track 5) seemed to outline greater degrees of sonic manipulation than the first. I observed the pulses as being more clearly defined while accentuations created for me a sense of temporal dislocation and the illusion of inherent rhythms. At just over five minutes, this track is somewhat longer than the first. The cutoff appeared equally as abruptly. The third track (track 6), which is almost eleven minutes, is by far the longest, containing more varied spectral transitions. As with the second, I observed that it was more heavily reliant on lower-range frequencies.

Richard speaks of “auditory hallucinations” that he experiences and of the persistent temptation to search for rhythmic patterns within the pulse.

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