Robert Murray Jamieson
Hitherto

Hitherto is a triptych of introspective fixed-media compositions, each work focused on personal, subjective and intersubjective experiences to varying degrees of abstraction.

The works, which represent three personal, consequential life events, range from audio documentary (Solappgang Kor), to the mixed or acousmatic-adjacent of Rebirth, and the acousmatic binaural work Circle & Dot which is best experienced through headphones.

Comprised of ambient, improvised musical and non-musical material; field and voice recordings; granular synthesis and microsound, the three pieces explore “free-form auditory imagery, sound metamorphoses, and virtual spaces”1, and were composed using graphic scores and narrative schemas along with more intuitive forms of editing and processing for composition.

A major part of the creative process involved experimenting with space and narrative in order to “tell” stories both implicitly and explicitly. The realization of the narrative of Solappgang Kor and Rebirth benefits from the use of spoken word, potentially making them easier for the listener to track the narrative more accurately in regard to the composer’s intent than with Circle & Dot, which relies wholly on a non-verbal sonic narrative.

Solappgang Kor

“Look to this day, for it is life. In its brief course, lie all the realities of our existence. Yesterday is but a memory, tomorrow, is only a vision. Look well then, to this day; such is the salutation of the dawn”

“Salutation of the Dawn” by Kalidasa (कालिदास); as paraphrased by Alan W. Watts. Based on the Sanskrit, c. 1200 B.C.

Solappgang Kor, (which means “Dawn Chorus” in Norwegian), documents a story of the year leading up to my birth, and my adoption six weeks later.

Rebirth

“The beginning is the end”

Rebirth is an acousmatic representation of a biographical multi-sensory experience which includes first person narration, abstract sound design and musical elements. The listener is presented with a sonic journey that tracks with the episodic memory of a guided meditation undertaken in the mid 1990’s. During this guided session, (of which I have only ever had one), I got as far back in “time” as the moments prior to, during and soon after my birth.

Circle & Dot

“Now listen to this reed-flute’s deep lament About the heartache being apart has meant”

This is a binaural acousmatic spatialization experiment that represents a personal episodic memory of an encounter with the archetypal symbol of the circle and dot. In short, halfway through a night- snowboarding session during which I had been “wiping-out” over and over again, I decided to stop and sit quietly atop the snow-covered mountain so as to relax, and “pull myself together”. After several minutes of simple, close-eyed breathwork, an image gradually emerged from the darkness behind my eyes; misty, smoke-like tentacles interlaced and wove a circle, which was joined soon after by a puffy little dot; smack bang in the centre of the circle.