Robert Piotrowicz – Afterlife CD

Polish composer and sound artist Robert Piotrowicz presents his first work for Penultimate Press, one which outlines an uncanny sound world with a series of fictional organ pieces.

Whilst resembling a pipe organ alongside other acoustic sources all material is strictly synthetic. The impression of air being swept through the bellows… false. The spatial organisation suggesting it was recorded in large physical space, false! The long middle solo passage in Noumen must have been performed by some kind of wind instrument, no? False.

All of these are elaborate tricks of the ear.

The music of Afterlife is an artificial construct, one that is not able to be played on a traditional 12-tone organ, especially as one encounters a tuning based on 1/3-tone intervals. The result are three compositions which comprise a rather unique harmonic composition. One that comes across both familiar and foreign.

Afterlife is an ambitious exploration of sound modelling and sound manipulation. Manipulation of both the tools deployed and to the listener with regards to the synthesis of acoustic deception. The result is a bold and dramatic shimmering mass of music. A fluid and visceral audio rendering with sheets of colourful sound pouring around the listener.

Like much of Piotrowicz’s output this is more extraordinary exploration of the constituent relationship between harmonic and frequency components whilst investing a deep engagement with the synthetic as acoustic ruse.