DUALLING by austraLYSIS: Earshift 085 CD and Digital Download Release March 2024

a) Album Bonus works (2021-3) : 8 additional works (audio: Joins; Aftermath 1; Flow Processing; Piano Dual Chord; Piano Strings Move; Joing the Links; and audiovisual: Textures of Sound; Blob Geometry) are available to play here

The full sleeve notes are here and can be downloaded (while a more informal listeners' guide is below).

b) Album Track listing and listening information are below.

Track by Track Listening guide

- What is the one thing listeners need to know to 'get' this music? Overall: They probably need to listen specifically for the links between the instrumental sound and the ea (electroacoustic, that is digitally generated or manipulated) sound. For example, hear how Phil and Sandy often drastically change the wind (or noise) content of their sounds as part of their process of interacting with the ea; sometimes they minutely change pitch for the same purpose. Similarly, sometimes the interior of the piano, the strings and body, are used directly to create sounds that are intermediate between conventional piano sounds (of which we often have an image of purity and simplicity, in spite of their incredible complexity) and the ea sounds, such as to create interactions with it. Vice versa, the virtual drums and strings (computer-driven sampled sounds) are used to allow the computer performer (Greg in this case) to link up with acoustic sounds; while physical synthesis (virtual) digital piano sounds are used in several pieces, to allow tunings that would not be practical on a normal piano, and to provide a consistency of timbre that is unusual amongst real instruments. Listen to the piano sounds for variety when it moves between low and high or vice versa. In all pieces, one inspiration was the Dualling concept, interpreted in many different ways, but always present.

Here are listening notes that hopefully may help any listener appreciate and enjoy our work:

1:Trumpet Pelog 4:46 (trumpet, ea) ISRC AU-K6P-23-00001 Hear the digital keyboard sounds (somewhat like a piano, but distinct, some very damped sounds, some brittle) interspersed with very noisy windy digital sounds and erratic variations of these, alongside the continuity of the trumpet. Both partners use subtle small changes in pitch quite often.

2:Alone in Space (Aired Thoughts 1) 5:14 (trumpet) ISRC AU-K6P-23-00002 Now you hear the subtlety and continuous flexibility of Phil’s trumpet tones, in a sense rejoicing in the physical environment in which it is sounding.

3:Dualling 1 3:59 (trumpet, piano) ISRC AU-K6P-23-00003 Hear the purity and spaciousness of the medium and high pitches from trumpet and piano, contrasted with the dense darkness used in the lower piano register. Phil plays some brilliant repeating patterns than continuously expand and retract.

4:Distant Drums 4:41 (trumpet, drums/bass) ISRC AU-K6P-23-00004 Declamatory statements from virtual drums and bass (both prolific sound sequences) complement the sustained opening slow movements of the trumpet, that gradually pick up speed to join the drum/bass flux.

5:Fields 5:03 (trumpet, ea) ISRC AU-K6P-23-00005 As in the preceding trumpet tracks, Phil combines processual elaboration with diverse subtle timbral (tone quality) change. But here he is in the company of a changing and mixing set of natural environment sounds, with all their complexity and biological implication/weight.

6:Strafe (Dualling 2) 2:07 (trumpet, saxophones) ISRC AU-K6P-23-00006 A dynamic ‘chase’ with soaring playing and the excitement of breathy phrasing.

7:Stabs 1 4:06 (trumpet, ea) ISRC AU-K6P-23-00007 Here the ea is algorithmic virtual piano, forceful, dynamic, changing, gradually layering. Phil’s stabbing responses maintain a strong challenging dialogue, that resolves eventually to a simple repeating trumpet pattern (motto).

8:Assembly 2:47 (piano, drums) ISRC AU-K6P-23-00008 Now the piano leads a chase, joined by the drums, which digest the material, again resolving to a relatively simple synopsis of the preceding material.

9:Macedonian Air (Aired Thoughts 2) 3:41 (saxophones) ISRC AU-K6P-23-00009 Sandy plays with the physical environment, and exploits different subsections of her instruments for the purpose. The many multi-centered sounds she makes show characteristic distinct decay profiles for their different components, making each attack and decay a complex event to enjoy.

10:Raise (Dualling 3) 4:10 (saxophones, piano) ISRC AU-K6P-23-00010 A more episodic companion to Track 3, yet essentially lyrical throughout.

11:Unbalancing (Serial Dualling 1) 6:00 (text, saxophones, trumpet, piano, ea, strings) ISRC AU-K6P-23-00011 Here the questioning and challenging text is a precomposed element (by Hazel Smith, austraLYSIS member) with sections of which, and in sequence, the players worked. Then a montage and edit was made by Roger. As usual with our work, the music does not simply echo or amplify the text, but rather it both supports, challenges and contrasts.

12:AutoAltercation 1 (Serial Dualling 2) 5:07 (saxophones) ISRC AU-K6P-23-00012 A sound/texture-focussed sequential duet with herself by Sandy. She uses different instruments and approaches. Listen to the sequential varied audio spatialisation of the strands.

13:Riding 2:27 (saxophones, ea) ISRC AU-K6P-23-00013 Here the ea is a dynamic multistrand string section, playing largely short spiky (literally, often using the bouncing bowing technique of spiccato), forcing an almost continuous outburst from Sandy and its abrupt cessation.

14:Saxophone Flows 5:04 (saxophones, ea) ISRC AU-K6P-23-00014 The strong pitch bend at the beginning becomes thematic as the piece progresses. After this statement, and complex ea texture of slow sounding, pitch-bending bells emerges, that gradually spread across more or less the whole audio spectrum, expanding occasionally into simultaneous percussive rhythms. Sandy balances her pitch range with the pattern and spread of the bell-like sounds.

15:Rhytharmonies 5:27” (saxophones, ea) ISRC AU-K6P-23-00015 Here a compositional algorithm navigates through a sequence of harmonies, that start narrow and soft and move to broad and loud and then retreat via a different path to finish like the opening.

16:Indian Betsy 4:27 (saxophones, ea) ISRC AU-K6P-23-00016 What do you hear amongst the ea sound? Probably no words, yet most of the sounds are derived from speech by digital transformation. They form dynamic swathes across the pitch ranges, with which Sandy interacts by tenor saxophone sounds that include multiple-pitch sounds as well as huge variety of tone and attack, all to the purpose of complementing the ea.

17:AutoAltercation 2 (Serial Dualling 3) 2:51 (piano) ISRC AU-K6P-23-00017 Like Sandy in Track 12, Roger duets with himself in succinct disjunct phrases that pass between the two performances, exploiting the full range of the piano, as well as creating attractive harmonics, pitch bends, and other tones directly on the strings, plucked or struck. Ask yourself where all the individual sounds come from.

18:Piano Steam Joins 4:49 (piano, ea) ISRC AU-K6P-23-00018 Listen throughout for the ea process, including its rhythmic repeating patterns. The piano responds to different aspects of it at different points: see what relationships you can detect (amongst quite a wide range!). The steam flows into some pretty intense piano playing in parts; and note how the piano moves in the audio image. It’s not only trumpet and saxophone that can move around the space in which we perform! If there is a battle, the ea retreats last.