IN A SEDIMENTAL MOOD (musique d’ameublement) (furniture music) (2010)
(74 minutes)
Music to be heard, not listened to. To be focused on in a distracted state. (Trying to concentrate on it only provokes its retreat).
Much like wallpaper begs you not to look at it, but to check in with it sporadically. Out of the corner of your ear.
A deaf recording, like a blind drawing.
One person’s noise is another one’s signal.
The “thingness” of a thing is established by cranking out variations which reinforce (paradoxically) their sameness.
Always transposing, always standing still.
A slow trawl towards a sedimented state.
Musique d’ameublement refers to Erik Satie’s precognition / prefiguration of Musak in the early 20th ct.
____________________________________________
In a Sedimental Mood is a work of “musique d’ameublement” – in the tradition of Erik Satie and Musak – and is meant to be played at low volume in your place of residence whilst being occupied with something else – i.e. not meant to be listened to attentively, but to be overheard occasionally, tuned into once in a while, but mostly coating the room in which you are in like so much wallpaper. You can try and listen to it at regular volume, but as you will find out, it tends to insist that it is not to be listened to…go figure. It was made in a strange way. I recorded each layer without listening to the previous – it’s a “deaf” recording in other words – any fortuitous harmonic/melodic encounter is purely coincidental. I also thought of this work as a set of fractal instances of a same general idea, a set of non-repetitive repetitions – you are always hearing the same contours, instruments and general affects, but the melodies and harmonies are different each time….a slow downwards trawl to a sedimented listening….