Bulletin 4

 

Launching 10, 100,000 and 252. These last three works embody the essence of the exercise in which Composite By The Numbers had been conceived. These numbers could mean anything and nothing. It is our engagement with them, our conscious interrogation of what they mean to us and others that makes numbers more than just random digits. Compositing numbers in this project does not answer the question of 'how many'… but 'how so'?

 

It was a long wait to complete the roster of works from August 2020 until February 2021. It was unfortunate that the original roster of artists couldn't be completed. But that is how it is in real life anyway, we do not always end up achieving our plans. As one of my favourite 'mantra' goes: We can only play with the cards we are dealt with.

 

On the whole, despite that the artists worked separately, individually, we are amazed by how many of the works correspond/ resonate with others, whether in terms of form, sentiment or sensation. Moreover, experiencing them together, as one narrative, in this website format, brought us in a roller-coaster ride of emotions. It made evident that even until now we are all still “afraid of the dark”, and it is perfectly alright. 

 

We encourage you to spend time listening and appreciate all the works. It might relay a different story to you, that is what is desired, and it is perfectly alright. 

 

We will have this present set of works on this platform (https://compositebythenumbers.com/) until 1 June 2021. We will relaunch on 9 August 2021 with an exhibit in a virtual gallery format. Relaunching it in a different format is a form of inquiry on what or how much the staging format in this virtual platform contributes to appreciation and understanding of the works.

 

I would like to thank all those who have already visited, continuously visiting, and will visit the exhibit, especially those who took time to send me their feedback. I would like to thank all the artists who submitted their work-- for taking up the challenge, and most especially for walking with me when the journey seem bleak. I would also like to thank Millet Yulo for going out of her way to accommodate my art projects during the pandemic. And thank you too to Post Gallery for making this possible and for their consistent support to my curatorial experimentation in the past 3 years.

 

                                                                                                    -- Dayang Yraola

 

 

Launched: Mary Katherine Trangco aka Katz

 

 I do agree with Katz, when here she said that 10 can give us a sense of completion. Most even numbers  can give us that feeling/ sense.  Remembering our early childhood learnings will give us the reason why. Going farther, digging up the archaeology of the mind there is a reason for the reason that we remember. It is an interesting thing to think about, but it is a whole different exercise from the one that we are doing now. So, we set it aside, in the meantime.

 

The 10 days that Katz captured in her work may not be unique to her experience alone. There is no claim of spectacle. What this work presented though is the mindspace that many of us have ignored when we could still go out freely and with ease—the idea of the inside (physically, inside one’s home or figuratively, inside one’s mind) and how it is truly different than what is outside; compounded by the ideas of togetherness and being alone.

 

 

Track Name: 10 ||  || Duration: 09:20 mins

10 is a compilation of ten 1-minute tracks recorded in 10 days within the pandemic. The piece aims to capture the daily events in the life of a person on lockdown, and those who have gone back to their usual activities such as the street vendors, to survive the economic challenges posed by the prolonged suspension of business (and life, in general) due to COVID-19.                   

The number 10 gives a sense of completion in the sense that it ends the series of single digits, but can also serve as starting point for the next series that starts in 1 (10, 11, 12, etc.). 10 also stands for individuality in multiplicity in the sense that there is commonality in all the symptoms of all those affected by the virus.                   

When added together, 10 equals 1, a number that symbolize isolation each of us has been facing due to the pandemic. Those inflicted with the virus go through the treatment alone, while those on lockdown undergo the same detachment from the outside world. It also stands for the transmission of the virus that started with just one person.                   

A person, whether in the pandemic or not, deals with death alone. Even the fight for survival, which may be made possible with the aid of medicine and technology administered by others, is still ultimately won only by the individual.

 

https://compositebythenumbers.com/mary-katherine-trangco/

Launched: Lisa Hall

 

 

“This work sounds out the number of people who have died each week during the pandemic.” It was an inspiration that we hope were not available. But we are already in the thick of it, and very painfully, we cannot, and should not ignore.

 

I have tried to watch this work and to just listen to it. What it granted the audience was a mindspace, a repose, a place to think about this collective journey that we have all been taking since the beginning of 2020. It doesn't exactly tell you something. Instead it brings you somewhere. It is in this sense Lisa's work  bears a similar sentiment as Katz. Katz’s work, being a composer, is understandably more musical in her approach, while Lisa’s, being a sound artist, is more soundscape in her treatment.

 

PS. Lisa's work is best listened to intimately. Quiet place and headphones recommended. 

 

 

http://www.lisa--hall.co.uk/

 

 

Track Name: 100’000hz || Date Created: 27 Jan 2021 || Date Recorded: 27 Jan 2021 || Duration: 13:14 mins

 

In the midst of our third peak of CoVid in the UK, 11 months in, we find ourselves with a new strain of the virus, our national health service almost overwhelmed and more than 100'000 people dead.
 
At this devastating point in the pandemic, this work sounds out the the number of people who have died each week during the pandemic, as an attempt to understand these awful statistics. Starting from March 2020 when the first person died, to the latest weekly total of 7507 deaths captured in mid January, these numbers are compiled in an 11 piece score.


In the performance, each number is sounded as a frequency - to hear these deaths in hertz. Working from a field recording taken during the early days of the first lockdown, each frequency is drawn out and emphasized. Through this the statistics become audible, found in our environment. The peaks and decline of the pandemic are heard and the cumulative effects build to fundamentally change the sound of that sunny spring morning.

 

 

 

https://compositebythenumbers.com/lisa-hall/

 

 

 

Launched: C-drik aka Cedrik Fermont

And similar to Lisa, C-drik’s sounded out the number of people who died, again, an inspiration that we wish is not available to us. I borrow a line from C-drik’s statement to close this launch:     

 

“The over mediatisation of the crisis generates a lot of noise, such as this composition; the music and images are distorted and full of glitches like parts of the information we receive every day and some of the decisions that are being taken by the authorities or ourselves.”

 

With what we do, we can either add to this noise, to distort and create glitches, or we retreat to reasonable contemplation, to feel our next step, in this dark alley we are all in at the moment.

 

 

Track Name: 252 || Date Created: 9&10 Feb 2021 || Date Recorded: 9&10 Feb 2021  || Duration: 252 seconds

 

 

252

The title of the piece (252) corresponds to the number of deaths in Germany on one specific day, hence the length of the piece is 252 seconds.

 

The graphic score is time based only ; dynamics, notes, tempi are not directly connected to any numbers, rather than that, they are often incidental, sometimes repetitive and deconstructed such as the video for which I used some simple pixelation effects - they represent the digitisation of all data whose amount became so huge that it sometimes gets lost in translation; some information is repeated on and on while some other is being erased, hidden or misinterpreted. There are so many numbers and such a variety of them that we tend to forget what they represent (deaths per million, deaths per day, people infected per day or month, people who recover without after-effects, others who do not recover, death by gender, age, and so on). The over mediatisation of the crisis generates a lot of noise, such as this composition; the music and images are distorted and full of glitches like parts of the information we receive every day and some of the decisions that are being taken by the authorities or ourselves.

 

252 may sound confusing and, I presume, for some irritating - the whole crisis is for most of us confusing and possibly irritating, I simply tried to amplify the noise.

 

The portion of text is based on numbers of deaths, cases, and so on in Germany where I live but my voice is not very clear, again, it is confusing.

 

What most of us keep in mind are not the numbers but who around us got infected, sick, disabled, died, lost someone, lost a job, lost money, lost an apartment, got a fine for not respecting a curfew, got stuck thousand of kilometres from home, became depressed, etc.

 

 

https://compositebythenumbers.com/c-drik/

Launched: TinTin Patrone

 

Track Name: I HAD WAY MORE DIRTIER THINGS IN MY MOUTH [Featuring: Neil Young Cloaca, Pilla Piano, Andrea Rinaldi, Tintin Patrone; Tim Huys (Animation)] || Date Created: December 18th 2020 || Date Recorded: December 20th - 26th || Duration: 04:54 mins

I HAD WAY MORE DIRTIER THINGS IN MY MOUTH

‘The word has not been recognized as a virus because it has achieved a state of stable symbiosis with the host. My basis theory is that the written word was literally a virus that made the spoken word possible. This virus came from outer space.
From symbiosis to parasitism is a short step. The word is now a virus. The flu virus may have once been a healthy lung cell. It is now a parasitic organism that invades and damages the central nervous system. Modern man has lost the option of silence. Try halting sub-vocal speech. Try to achieve even ten seconds of inner silence. You will encounter a resisting organism that forces you to talk. That organism is the word.’

William S. Bouroughs

‘A virus operates autonomously, without human intervention. It attaches itself to a host and feeds off of it, growing and spreading from host to host. Language infects us: its power derives not from its straightforward ability to communicate or persuade but rather from this infectious nature, this power of bits of language to graft itself onto other bits of language, spreading and reproducing, using human beings as hosts. Georges Bataille similarly argued that communication was best understood from the perspective of contagion. In Bataille any human being is no more than a conduit for communicative process, a channel for ideas which pass through him/her.’

Bernardo Attias

’ saw this guy on the train
And he seemed to have gotten stuck
In one of those abstract trances.
And he was going: ’Ugh . . . Ugh . . . Ugh . . .‘‘ Laurie Anderson, Language is a virus 

 

 

I HAD WAY MORE DIRTIER THINGS IN MY MOUTH is a comment on Corona naysayers’ conspiracy theories, fake news and the viral aspects of spoken language. It’s based on data measuring the amount of aerosols spread while breathing and speaking in an unventilated room during 4:54 minutes.

Each of the 4 performers chooses his/her own instruments/sound sources, each performer chooses 1 of 4 available aerosol-symbols as an personal indicator to produce sound.

No aerosols means no sound, few aerosols mean few sounds, more aerosols indicate more sound, more volume, more intensity.
Interpretation of other inputs is up to the performer.

TinTin Patrone is a German-Filipino composer, musician, actress, film and music producer as well as painter, performance artist and author. Patrone founded the group Krachkisten Orchestra in 2009, the International MusicMotorcycleClub in 2012, and runs various musical and artistic individual projects in parallel. The connections between music, art, sound and

experimental gesture is the general field TinTin Patrone is interested in. One focus of her creations lies on the visual elements of music, the tension between conceptual ideas and physical existence and how we relate to music individually and as a society.

Her performances and installations include elements from musical Concept-Art, Fluxus and Social practice. Her projects work as a form of comparative study of art and music.

concept/composition: Tintin Patrone || animation: Tim Huys

performers: Andrea Rinaldi https://spentriu.com || Pilla Piano https://www.pillapiano.com || Tintin Patrone || Neil Young Cloaca http://yeay.suchfun.net

 

Launched: Laure Boer

www.laureboer.com

Photo credit: Paul Rousteau

 

We launched Laure's on the last day of 2020. This work captured the sentiment that is shared by all colours, classes, and creed-- torpor; of not knowing; the anxiety of this unforgettable year that felt brand new in all turns and bents. We were only sure of one thing-- that we are all unsure. 

The work too loops us back to the feeling shared by the first two works release, while we are still in the rawness of this pandemic.  I particularly favour that this work was performed by artists who are participants of Composite By The Numbers, a solid reminder that we are all in this together. It then serves a perfect closing act for this year. Denouement. 

   

Track Name (Title): Torpor [Featuring: Tintin Patrone, Trombone (line 5), Auspicious Family, Synthesizer (line 7), Laure Boer, vocals (line 11)] || Date Created: November 2020 || Date Recorded: December 2020 || Duration: 5.56mins 

 

The score is about the difficulty to relate to the abstraction of the pandemic on a global scale on one side, and the falling in a period of torpor on a local and personal scale on the other side. It brings together statistics about the deaths due to the pandemic in Germany, and personal daily photos during the last four seasons. The piece can be played from 3 to 13 musicians. Each musician chooses a line. Where there is light (white grain), there is sound. It can mean volume or intensity, depending on the instrument. The ellipses are total silences and have a connection with the amount of deaths in Germany. The photos and the seasons are like a narrative frame to the composition. In this frame one comes back to very basic transcriptions of sensations: where you have light, you have sound.

It transcripts for me this feeling of torpor, uncertainty, to go everyday step by step. 

The composition is based on the statistics of the Robert Koch Institute in Germany. 

 

 

https://compositebythenumbers.com/laure-boer/

 

 

 

Launched: No One Pulse

 

http://www.re-records.com/

Holger Schulze said "sound leave traces." This composition hints us of sensation of sounds associated with protest movement-- marching, siren, gunshots, assembly, abrupt commotion, and others, periodically punctuated by bleeping sound similar to pedXing, which is recognisably Hong Kong. These then are sound traces.

The inspiration of this work is slightly away from the issue of medical pandemic, but still a pandemic of sort that affected many lives and will affect many more in many future generations. Sound traces of these numbers are put forward
......lest we forget.

Track Name: 數數字 Count Numbers || Date Created: 2020 || Duration: 15.12 mins

數字 , the word translated from "number" in Chinese, has more than one connotation. It is not only used as a noun but also a verb in describing the action of counting. 

The score is derived from the dates of events and incidents happened during the democratic protest in Hong Kong, 2019. 

With the associations and linkings of The 1989 Tiananmen Square Incident in Beijing, China. June 4, or its variations like 64 / 8964 / 35th May, are banned from the internet and general media in China because of its sensitive and controversial nature. As with the newly proposed National Security Law from the HKSAR government, the dates in the score may also be likely banned in the future.

https://compositebythenumbers.com/no-one-pulse/

Launched: Makoto Nomura

 

https://www.makotonomura.net/

Makoto offers rest and not mourning--a lullaby instead of requiem.  

I dare say nothing else, so as not to disturb this fragile peace.

To experience the rest of this 6.29mins piece, please visit our site: https://compositebythenumbers.com/

Track Name: Chant for Sleep (featuring [dance] Osamu Jareo and Shin Sakuma; [video] Toshie Kusamoto; [piano tuning and recording] Yasunaga Ueno @Stimmer Saal, Shiga; [mastered] Yusuke Kataoka; [filmed by] Toshie Kusamoto and Teruaki Okamoto @the bank of the Kamo-gawa River, Kyoto; [coordinator] Mari Satomura) || Date Created: 26 September 2020 || Date Recorded: 13 October 2020 || Duration: 6.29mins

 “Chant for Sleep” is a piece of 225 bars, which represent 225 days from 14^th February, the first day of covid-19 death in Japan, to 25^th September 2020. It is a piece of 1539 notes, which represent 1539 people in Japan who died of covid-19 during 225 days. It is intended as a requiem for the peaceful eternal sleep of covid-19 victims as well as a lullaby to make coronavirus sleep.  

(...) Although I studied mathematics at Kyoto University and I followed numbers for this composition, I did not want to compose it only mathematically. In order to create music dedicated to 1539 people and their last days, I struggled within the rule and tried to compose music with all my heart and soul. The score is totally hand-written in pencil and intended for piano with slight voice accompaniment in the end. This voice part is a quotation from folk sumo ritual called Nettei Sumo, whose stomping is believed to have a special power to make evil spirits calm down. I put this voice with the hope of protection against pandemic. This music is open to collaborate with other forms of arts, for example dance, visual art, etc.  

 

You are encouraged to perform this score and share your realisation with me through nomu104@googlemail.com

https://compositebythenumbers.com/makoto-nomura/

Launched: UP Tugtugang Musika Asyatika

 

youtube channel UP Tugma

Since March 2020, Manila had been placed in various stages of lockdown. There was CQ Community Quarantine, ECQ Enhanced Community Quarantine, GCQ General Community Qurantine and MECQ Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine. It looked well and organised on papers but outside, in real life, on the streets, it remains all the same-- anxiety, stress, distress, uncertainty, and to some extent fear. It was a new brand of chaos that is new to all of us. This ensemble piece worked out these lockdown rhetoric into melodic experience. It gives us a semblance of harmony, if not actually hope.

Track Name: Lockdowns and Sounds: Kilos, Pakiramay, Pag-asa. Arrangers: Eva Cuenza and  Jaime Dela Cruz. Performers: [Kulintangan] Marla Anonuevo -Kulintang, James Gazmin- Agong, Kiks Ferrer- Babandir, Miguel Matthew- Dabakan; [Voices] Lhareen Lazo, Jeannae Dormido, Joseph Tinio, Jaime Dela Cruz, Angelo Laureta || Date created: September 18, 2020 || Date recorded: October 2-18, 2020 || Duration: 1.53mins

This piece is a composition in Tidtu Kamamatuan, a Maguindanao traditional kulintangan. The melodic contours is an attempt to portray a soundscape that would describe the lockdown experience. Melodic modes were clustered according to the type of lockdown that were implemented in Metro Manila.  On the graph, a week constitutes one whole melodic mode from the lockdown it represents. The line graph represents the number of cases. It is accentuated by the dynamics coming from the rest of the ensemble – wherein the volume is directly proportional to the number of cases. The gradual fading volume and abrupt ending of the music then is an optimistic attempt to look forward to better days. And the opportunity to respond by adjusting and adapting to new normal. 

    https://compositebythenumbers.com/tugma/

Bulletin 3

 

compositebythenumbers.com has a new feature!

since there are 20 photos and names and links on the ARTIST tab, 

we made a dropdown menu under the WORK tab, 

where artists are arranged by the month that they were launched

artists for the current month are on the main page,

so when you click WORK, it will bring you currently to OCTOBER launch.

them:

when you click SEPTEMBER, you'd see him:

and them when you click AUGUST:

if we are lucky, we still be launching 14 more compositions in the next 4 months.

meantime, peace y'll! stay solid!