A conical fragment of rock that is formed from the high pressure of volcanism or meteorite impact and has striations radiating from the apex.
(The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: 4th Ed. 2000)
Shatter Cone was composed during winter 2004 as commission from the MATA Festival 2004 to be performed by Mari Kimura. The title refers to the way the sound of the violin is formed into sonic structures from the impact of bow’s pressure, speed and position on the strings in combination with their register. Multifaceted abstract sonic structures reveal their morphoplastic qualities through continually transforming the sound of the violin.
Like a moving sculpture, Shatter Cone reveals its facets through sonic shadows, illusions, wrappings and refractions of itself. Every abstract sound structure has its own unique place and moment within the musical space. The pre-recorded material comes only from violin sounds, meticulously transformed to keep the gestural and spectral data of the original sound while losing reference to the original. The aim is to enhance the violin’s sound profile and give a sense of continuity.
For the creation and production of the work I used GNU/GPLicence programs running on a Linux based platform. The work was realised at the studios of the Department of Music Technology and Acoustics at Technological and Educational Institute of Crete - and my home studio.