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 I was interested in two ideas when I made this piece: 1. using an extreme degree of control to create an effect of seemingly unpredictable interactions and coincidences, and 2. the idea that our pattern-seeking brains might simplify extremely complex frequency relationships into something approximating a harmonic series.

16 oscillators are distributed across 8 speakers in Max/MSP, slowly swelling in and out of focus as a 8-part polyrhythm, where 1 complete cycle takes 100 hours. Each oscillator is paired with another oscillator, and vibrate within a randomly distributed distance of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 hertz, creating a secondary polyrhythmic layer of beating speeds (itself forming a harmonic series)

There is also a third, even slower polyrhythmic layer that emerges when the oscillator frequencies align in a true harmonic series. Because of the overlapping rhythms, faster oscillators may swell into focus as part of a true harmonic series, while “non-harmonic” frequencies fade out, but for me, my perception these “non-harmonic” tones often (coincidentally) begin to approximate simpler relationships to the new, emerging fundamental. 

Depending on the register of these “non-harmonic” tones (constantly changing due to the layers of polyrhythms), they might sound like a strange, high prime partial, or could simulate an entirely new fundamental that harmonically re-contextualizes every tone above it.

-jay campbell