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Epenthesis

from Abstractions 2 by Thom Blum

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Epenthesis - for processed percussion and electroacoustics (2019, 12:24)
percussionist: Ron Pelletier

This piece follows the lives of two timbral “communities”. One community consists of a small set of digitally-synthesized, processed, and manually-edited sound sequences (timbral progressions), while the other consists of families of improvised analog sound sequences, produced mostly on a trap drum kit, as well as the electro-acoustically processed versions of those analog sequences.

During the first couple of minutes the sequences in the synthesized world establish themselves. But over that course they also “attract“ or call out for other voices. So in the next stage, the established order has increasing encounters with the (electro)acoustic percussion community. The latter are inserted into established sequences, either replacing, smearing, or overlapping parts.

The languages of the two distinct communities have a few timbral similarities, so mimicry is the initial response to the “call”. And as the piece progresses the relatively stiff, micro-edited sequences nearly all fall away, having completed their mission of supplying patterns of timbral progressions.

In phonology, epenthesis occurs when a phoneme is added to an existing word. For example, in some dialects “drawing” becomes “drawring”. This often occurs naturally over time to ease pronunciation. In this case, epenthesis applies to the insertion of sounds (timbres and timbral progressions) into an already-established sound palette or community.

Here, epenthesis is not about easing pronunciation, rather it’s about increasing the listener’s engagement through the push and pull of variation and commonality.

©+℗ 2019 Thom Blum (ASCAP)

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from Abstractions 2, released August 28, 2020
Percussion improvisations by Ron Pelletier
Electro-acoustic processing of percussion by Thom Blum

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Thom Blum San Francisco, California

Thom Blum has been composing electroacoustic music since 1974.

Recent performances and installations include "[You Are [Here] You [Are] You Here]", a sound installation established in 2022 in the Prelinger Library in San Francisco, and "Telescopic 1 (zoom out)" at the San Francisco Tape Music Festival 2024. ... more

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