Ben Glas
“Uhr / To Fade To”
an ambient random sequence d.i.y. installation, inspired by Eno, Satie and the passage of time
Uhr / To Fade To is an experimentally experiential sound piece which questions the individual listener’s agency within the listening experience and preconceived expectations around the acts of active and passive listening. Comprised of 240 thirty-second triad sinetone drones, this album is to be downloaded and randomly shuffled in a player of one’s choice. The result is a seemingly endless array of tonal possibilities, a larger-than-human-life melody full of aleatoric twists and turns.
The impetus of this piece is to dig deeper into an inquiry that Erik Satie opened with the advent of his so called “Furniture Music” and which was later expanded upon by Brian Eno’s popularisation of “Ambient Music”. This is piece is to be played into an open space and to be forgotten about and returned to. As each track is precisely 30 seconds long, it acts as an abstracted clock. Listeners may drift from and to the space in which they choose to listen in. As the content of this album is made up completely of sinetones, the piece is inherently relativistic and allows listeners to move through the peaks and troughs of the waves.
There are
4,067,885,363,647,058,120,493,575,921,486,885,310,172,051,259,182,827,146,069,75 5,969,081,486,918,925,585,104,009,100,729,728,348,522,923,820,890,245,870,098,65 9,147,156,051,905,732,563,147,381,599,098,459,244,752,463,027,688,115,705,371,70 4,628,286,326,621,238,456,543,307,267,608,612,545,168,337,779,669,138,759,451,76 0,395,968,217,423,617,954,330,737,034,164,596,496,963,986,817,722,252,221,059,76 8,080,852,489,940,995,605,579,171,999,666,916,004,042,965,293,896,799,800,598,07 9,985,264,195,119,506,681,577,622,056,215,044,851,618,236,292,136,960,000,000,00 0,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
possible variations of the melody that this piece and randomised album present, if shuffled and played from beginning to end.