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BATCHELOR, PETER - Kaleidoscope

Format: CD & DVD-R Label & Cat.Number: Pogus Productions P21073-2 Release Year: 2014 Note: five stunning eight channel pieces that are supposed to work like a Kaleidoscope (= the dynamic spatial activity through sound) by this British electro-acoustic composer from Birmingham => sonic particles are united, fragmented, alienated, disrupted,etc. in a continuous development and transformation, "the spatial language consists of peripheral, rotational, oppositional and envelopment activities and relationships"; comes with DVDr containing the original 8-channel version! Price (incl. 19% VAT): €13.00 More Info "This release of electroacoustic music by composer Peter Batchelor contains the original (and preferred) 8 channel versions of the works (DVD-ROM) along with stereo versions (CD) for easier/speedier listening. The idea for the Kaleidoscope works came from the composers? memories of playing with the prismatic toy of the same name as a child. The toy, of course, consists of colored beads in a tube of mirrors, whose reflections generate complex symmetrical patterns that change dramatically in density and texture as the tube is turned. With these pieces the aim was to emulate such dynamic spatial activity through sound, distributing fragmentary materials in space and immersing the listener in a rich and ever-changing sonic environment. They have been composed for an eight-channel listening environment, the speakers arranged equally in a circle surrounding the audience, and the spatial language consists of peripheral, rotational, oppositional and envelopment activities and relationships (in contrast to left/right and back/front as in stereo works and traditional concert diffusion). The works should therefore be spatially and musically coherent irrespective of audience position or orientation, and listeners should receive similar subjective weightings (relative levels) of front, sides and rear wherever they happen to be situated (even if the positions and trajectories of spatial gestures are perceived differently by each). Peter Batchelor is a composer and sound artist living in Birmingham, UK. He has studied with Jonty Harrison and Andrew Lewis and lectures at De Montfort University, Leicester. Predominantly working with fixed-media, his output ranges from two-channel 'tape' compositions for concert diffusion to large-scale multi-channel installation work." [label info] www.pogus.com "..The DVD has the original 8-channel piece of 'Kaleidoscope', but I don't have the playback for such a thing, so I am stuck with the stereo version. I never heard of Batchelor, who is a composer from Birmingham, UK and who studied with Jonti Harrison and Andrew Lewis. He works 'predominantly with fixed-media, his output ranges from two-channel 'tape' composition for concert diffusion to large-scale multi-channel installation work'. Playing with a prismatic toy as a kid inspired ‘Kaleidoscope’ and perhaps it's not difficult to see that relating to the music piece. Just like light makes different colours of different intensities, so that this music move back and forth, from front to back and back, top to bottom, left to right. I can surely imagine how this sounds on an 8-channel set-up: even better than it does on a stereo version, I imagine. This is from the world of serious electronic composing, say the world of Canada's Empreintes Digitales, but whereas works released over there are not always to my liking, I surely liked this one a lot. The gliding of tones, the processed white noise, the overall vibrancy of the pieces, the constant motion of the sounds used. This is all in the world of computerized sounds, I would think, and whatever went in to generate this sound material is something we not longer can hear. And perhaps it's also something that one should not care about? It's the result that matters and that result is great." [FdW/Vital Weekly]