Via Vimeo
Tristan Perich: 1-Bit Symphony (Part 1: Overview)
Tristan Perich is thinking through recording and performance in interesting and striking ways with his 1-Bit Symphony.
As described on his website:
1-Bit Symphony is an electronic composition in five movements on a single microchip. Though housed in a CD jewel case, 1-Bit Symphony is not a recording in the traditional sense; it literally “performs” its music live when turned on. A complete electronic circuit—programmed by the artist and assembled by hand—plays the music through a headphone jack mounted into the case itself.
As described on his website:
1-Bit Symphony is an electronic composition in five movements on a single microchip. Though housed in a CD jewel case, 1-Bit Symphony is not a recording in the traditional sense; it literally “performs” its music live when turned on. A complete electronic circuit—programmed by the artist and assembled by hand—plays the music through a headphone jack mounted into the case itself.
Perich employs humor, beauty and minimalism in sound and technology in his presentation. He and his publisher demonstrate a caring for the whole work: visual, physical, tactile, infrastructural (technological and economic) as well as acoustic. It is technologically enabled in the hardware sense, but it is also internet enabled in that the publisher, Cantaloupe Music, reaches its audiences directly online, and the purchasing is done through (maturing) e-commerce.
Via Vimeo
Tristan Perich: 1-Bit Symphony (Part 2: Music Excerpts)
I reveal my very modernist formation in my emotional response to this work. I was in such a thrall that I immediately purchased a “copy” of the work. I have treated it like a precious and delicate fetish. I unboxed it just to make sure it arrived “in one piece” but have been reluctant to have it play for me. This is a work that was meant to be played, and I’m treating it like a collector who doesn’t play with his toys. Forgive me Mr. Perich.
