Monolith Cocktail Blog

ALBUM INSPIRES SCI-FI FLIGHT OF FANTASY
Andrew C. Kidd

Catarina Barbieri ‘Spirit Exit’
(Warp)

The following is the audio transcript obtained using the application programming interface of the Epicurean II computer during its orbit of Kepler-442b. The transcript was automatically created in the year 2341 after an unknown signal was picked up by the spacecraft’s communication receiver. The audio files contained within the transcript are dated 2270 and made reference to the same unknown signal. The data retrieved had the filename Spirit Exit.

system.console.transcript(log.epicureanII);

  }

}

int main()

{

    FIND_DATA_FILE; Handle search_handle=FindFirstFile;

include <spirit exit> /s /p  

}

{

run.cross ref <spirit exit> /s /p

    outcome( élan vital ) /*

    outcome( beverage ) /*

    outcome( c.barbieri ) /*

}

{

std::string NewPath=folder Name + FileData;

FindAllFiles(NewPath) ;

include <c.barbieri> /s /p

}

{

run.transmission received /*

    outcome( time-mark July 2022 ) */

run.signal type */

    outcome( electromagnetic waveform )

run.signal frequency */

    outcome( unknown )

run.transmission medium */

    outcome( unknown ) */

run.signal description */

    outcome( oscillation.polyrhythm.humanoid.sequences )

unknown signal */

   printf( “transcription” );

   printf( “interpretation” );

}

(Music quietly playing)

Organic Interpreter 1: I believe it was Emily Dickinson who penned the lines, “Banish Air from Air/Divide Light if you dare -“. I understand that Barbieri used this word-sequencer (‘poet’ to humans) as a data reference point. When her Spirit Exit audio data were released, the year was 2022 and Earth’s populace had indeed started to divide light and banish air.

(Higher amplitude audio waveforms detected, including off-beat syncopations and human vocals)

Organic Interpreter 2: Ah yes, this is the start of the data, coded as At Your Gamut. You can hear the breakdown of the modular sequence to reveal the base notes of the arpeggios. The bass and treble are finely balanced.

{

std::string NewPath=folder Name + FileData;

FindAllFiles(NewPath) ;

include <Knot of Spirit> /s /p

}

(Modular sequence detected)

Organic Interpreter 1: These data are Knot of Spirit (Synth Version). It has a slow-keyed motif. I will call this a ‘modular aria’.

Organic Interpreter 2: You are ever the non-materialist. However, the shifts in semitones and complex structure do provide narrative. It slowly fades into a disintegrated ambience.

Organic Interpreter 1: These modular arpeggios are the lifeblood of Barbieri’s sound. The arterial cacophonies are layered polysequences. As with At Your Gamut, the eventual revealing of the scale notes in each arpeggio sequence is subtle capillary action.

(Harpsichord keys detected)

Organic Interpreter 2: I believe this not to be a harpsichord, although the allusion to it cannot be denied. Such carbonised instrumentation preceded these audio data by many centuries. The clavicembalum was the first such example.

Organic Interpeter 1: This cannot be concluded with 100% certainty. Transfixed also has vocoded voice, which one could argue is somewhat outside the norms of these data. It cannot be denied that the orbiting balance of timbre and amplitude remains. It is not the only example of carbonised instrumentation in these data. On Canticle of Cryo, there are the unmistakable wave frequencies of ‘guitar strings’.

Organic Interpeter 2: Talos has also identified wavelengths belonging to a further such organic instrument, which humans aptly denoted as an ‘organ’.

Talos (neural network algorithm): Correct. The wavelength of an organ is twice the length of its carbonised pipe and its resonant frequency is almost double that of a human. As such, it was easily identifiable. The synthetics and melodies in these data are similar to the harmonics we experience in the present aeon. Yet, this was written 248 years ago. There is also marked accelerando that alter the space-time ratio of these data.

Organic Interpreter 1: Her urgency to share these sounds perhaps resulted in this accelerando.

Talos: The frequencies of the MC-202, Roland’s 1983 monophonic synthesiser, are detectable on Life at Altitude.

Organic Interpreters 1 and 2: Remarkable.

Talos: It is also important to highlight that my computations suggest that the triangular zenith of the ‘modular synthesiser’ was realised through Silver Apples of the Moon (Morton Subotnick), Buchla Concerts 1975 (Suzanne Ciani) and Sunergy (Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and the before-cited Suzanne Ciani). Regarding the present data provided by Barbieri, my Forier Transforms cannot accurately detect the interchangeability of the wave frequencies. I have detailed the evidence of my failed attempts here:

{define.new result

modular_shift = key_base + avg_oscillation

/* plt.plot(major key, modular_shift)

SYSTEM.ERROR

}

Organic Interpreter 1: I believe this was coded as ‘melody’.

Organic Interpreter 2: This is an important observation and your algorithms warrant further training using these data.

(Music playing)

Organic Interpreter 1: The humans of the year 2022 would perhaps have proffered the words ‘hymnal quality’ to these data. The evidence is the harpsichord and allusion to a verse-chorus form on Transfixed, the plainsong vocals on Canticle of Cryo and organ allusion on Knot of Spirit. However, this ‘cathedral of sound’ would have been no totem to past glories. It would have been cryptless. There were no dead there. The cantabiles were early machine learning. The data output would have been exponential.

Organic Interpreter 2: Again you possess a leanedness of the humans and their ‘metaphors’. The sequencing of these data is to be applauded. The ascension of sound and melodic reprise of the opening data courses from Life at Altitude to the pulsing synth-repetition and sub-bass rhythm on Terminal Clock, the melodic data from the latter are seamlessly drawn-out and introduce The Landscape Listens. Each piece traverses space and time to echo and generate their respective progenitors and descendants.

Talos: Do you regard this as masterful?

Organic Interpreters 1 and 2: We do.

(Fading waveforms)

Organic Interpreter 1: I think the signal is being interrupted by solar bursts emanating from the K-type dwarf. I can still hear the gentle undulating amplitudes of The Landscape Listens. It is like a coracle on a cosmic sea, swashed and mov…

(Waveforms undetectable)

{

run.signal frequency */

    outcome( unknown signal lost )

start command.exe

archive.transmission received /*

    outcome( transmission time-marked July 2022 archived ) */

}