Merz Re #2

Merz Re \[#2] was written for Fish Yu’s Dolby Atmos project entitled The Sounds of Cities. Merz Re \[#2] is the second work in a series of acousmatic pieces inspired by dada artist Kurt Schwitters and his concept of Merz and its connection to Japanese noise artist Merzbow. Much of the form and sounds in Merz Re \[#2] was also inspired by John Cage’s piece William’s Mix. Like William’s Mix, Merz Re \[#2] uses six categories of sound (city, country, electronic, manually produced, wind, and "small" sounds) to create the complex and dynamic gestures in the music. The piece can be divided in three sections: (I): A wide outdoor soundscape full of animal sounds with low electronic synths creates a base of droning textures while instruments and sounds from the other categories are granulated, scrambled, and layered to create a dense web of sound. The sounds build in intensity to a climax of FM synthesis noise, a distorted dock sloshing in the water, and waterfall white noise. (transition): A swarm of bees slowly mutates into a distorted cacophony of horns and city sounds signaling the transition from the outdoor wilderness soundscape to the noisy din of the city and people. (II): Ever changing micro gestures of sampled field recordings of traffic, a public transit automated voice, singing, nature sounds, real-world instruments, and digital instruments creates a fast, exciting, and unpredictable collage that climaxes with a finale of Metal inspired riffs, noisy raw data sonifications, and harsh screams.