Capturing the Unpredictable

Anna Murray

Capturing the Unpredictable

The Dublin-based composer and musician Anna Murray has just released an EP of ambient electronic tracks. Across four tracks, Rndr features recorded improvisations from made in the music programming software Max/MSP and makes used of a bank of over 200 samples. Murray told The Journal of Music about her inspiration for the work and more about the technical aspects of this release.

What prompted you to begin work on Rndr?

Two things really: firstly I’ve been thinking a lot lately about composer-determination and improvisation in music, and looking at ways to explore this in my music. I have always tended to write music that is quite highly determined, but I really enjoy working closely with performers and seeing what they make of scores, and have been increasingly leaving space for performers to find their own way in them. I’ve tried to open things out even further over the past few months, with close collaborations and improvisatory works. As well as that, I have been looking for opportunities for performance for myself: Rndr was originally created as a piece for improvised performance.

How is Rndr put together?

The performance patch for Rndr is built from fifteen sample loops, each chosen completely randomly and played back at a random speed and panning. There is a sample bank of over 200 so you never know what you’re going to get when you turn up the fader! These samples were created from an original handful of piano sounds. These were (again) chosen at random and put through a number of effects and processes such as convolution (with one another), delays, reverbs, distortion and pitch changes. The result is a huge variety and range of sounds, so is pretty unpredictable in performance, though because the whole bank is created from a small batch, all the samples occupy a similar soundworld. The four tracks on the Rndr EP are recorded improvisations, with no post-processing apart from mastering.

Do you approach electronic music differently to acoustic composition?

I relatively rarely create purely electronic music: usually electronics form part of a piece also involving acoustic instruments, or alternatively, a visual component. In either case, I always try to make sure that there is a close connection between the electronic and acoustic aspects, and often try to find parallels in processes. Rndr is a result of questions I have been exploring lately in both acoustic and electronic composition: questions of improvisation, performance and determinism.

Do you have any particular listening environment in mind for this music?

Not at all — as a performance piece I’d love to perform it in all sorts of spaces, and certainly I’d view the recording the same way. The range in both sounds and dynamic level would require a fairly quiet environment, and it’s definitely most effective played loud. Though the soundworld seems to conjure up something dark….

Published on 31 October 2013

comments powered by Disqus