Performed by the Edinburgh Contemporary Music Ensemble (ECME)
Conducted by Jim Lowe
28th November 2015, Reid Hall, Edinburgh
 

Recorded and mixed by Donald Bell
Thanks to all the musicians, the ECME committee, Paul, Claudine and Richie

 

Hologram is a journey throughout an imaginary sound-world. The piece is inspired by the holographic theory in astrophysics, which proposes that the 4-dimensional world we experience (3 spatial dimensions plus time) might actually be the boundary of a higher multidimensional space-time, much like a 3D holographic image works (with 3D information stored onto a 2D surface).

What are the dimensions of sound and music? Can we play with them to suggest higher or hidden sonic dimensions? The piece is composed of three movements. In the 1st one ("the world as we know it"), several musical motifs are exposed then crushed down to a single sound (a sort of sonic "black hole"), allowing us to enter into a novel imaginary sound-world.

In the 2nd movement ("the holographic dimensions", from 04.10), the dimensions of this single sound (pitch, timbre, rhythm, loudness) are re-introduced one by one and "perverted" using a range of processes (microtonal, spectral, polyrhythmic), while the motifs of the 1st movement are re-imagined (through mirror writing and note phasing).

In the 3rd movement ("the holographic world", from 09.28), the different elements developed in the 2nd movement are combined into increasingly complex forms (through juxtaposition, superimposition and morphing). The movement eventually resolves into the starting material, the journey effectively going full circle back into our sonic world.