Together with the sustained, harmonic and inharmonic gestures, which trace this work throughout, ‘cataracts’ form a structural thread in the form of deluges of sound particles, washes of noise, and glissandi, where spectral motion often coincides with textural mutation in a form of ‘transformotion.’ Thus a spectral spine runs through the transforming sound environments of the work. An analogy of cataract as a medical eye condition (a clouding of the lens of the eye) can also be found in the way that our sense of spatial sonic definition is affected by degrees of textural opacity — the ‘acousmatic cataract’ being a continuum where clarity in microsound articulation intersects with clouds of noise and coagulated matter, blurring our auditory vision. Cataract may also allude to Pythagoras’s curtain in the etymology of the acousmatic: somehow the veil seems backgrounded as we move further away from the anecdotal world towards a more abstractly visual sound universe.

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Cataract was realized in 2010 in the Electroacoustic Studio of City University London (England, UK) and premiered on November 02, 2010 during the concert Exploring the Acousmatic Fabric of Space at City University London.

Premiere

• November 2, 2010, Exploring the Acousmatic Fabric of Space, Performance Space — College Building — City, University of London, London (England, UK)