nuage
-noun
Gouttelettes d’eau maintenues en suspension dans l’atmosphère
nuage → cloud;
Each track of this album is composed through a process of recording tones, generated from a feedback loop, to a four track cassette deck. One track at a time. As the tape comes to it's end, it is flipped over, and recording is continued unabated. What was a solo improvisation now becomes a duet, as the previously recorded material is played back in reverse.
When the tape comes to the end/beginning, we repeat the flip. Now there is a trio, and the musical motifs that have begun to develop are being repeated again, and become familiar. a composition begins to take shape, as the abundance of water molecules coalesce into a cloud, so to do the tones combine and intermingle to create melody and harmony. And a structure emerges from the final pass of the fourth track. Through this process many different entities can be conjured into shape, and yet, as different as they are, they are all still nuage.
It took awhile, from the time the original album recordings were made and when I finally released it, as I was trying to find the correct format to present my ideas. It finally landed on cassette tape. It is integral in the process of the pieces themselves, and the flexibility of the format, both in terms of durations and accessibility. Which allows me to be able to present the nuage as it is intended, a unique, though familiar entity.
As stated above, each piece is it's own thing, yet they are all the same. So, it felt inauthentic to present these five tracks as the representitive whole of a process that has no end, and no actual way to repeat itself, except through recorded reproduction. Further, the pieces themselves are a truncated presentation of an entire process of creation that I find much enjoyment in and hope to share the same with others. So, with the tape medium, it is possible to present a nuage, unique to each tape and in it's entirety. This is not as feasible, or as fun, to do with other formats. In this manner, everyone can have a cloud of their own.
Also, I am quite aware of how ubiquitous the term cloud is to describe many phenomena especially as they relate to music, La Monte Young, Iannis Xenakis, a lovely eurorack module are several that have had a very large influence on my own work. Yet I still feel the analogy has more to offer, especially here, with the double meaning behind the French word, in it's literal meaning, as well as the phonetic similarities to a kind of music that I can't help but become more and more enamored with.
