Splice employs synchronized live sampling of the soloist to impose a formal structure on a live improvisation. It is an example of an encoded 'meta-music' - that is a compositional map that is without contents until a live performer adds them. The soloist's sounds may be stretched, altered in pitch, echoed or even sunk only to re-emerge later - techniques similar for example to those found in a conventional sonata composition - except that they occur in real-time. Splice sculpts all sounds into the same structure regardless of whether they are melodic, noise or even silence, so though it may sound different each time its is always the same shape.
Splice was premiered at the Concert Studio of the Queensland University of Technology.
A live record from the legendary Diamanda Galás finds the artist exploring the outer fringes of pop with only her voice and a piano. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 30, 2024