Dicyanoacetylene began as a study of obsession and a reaction against art-world gatekeeping: I sought to prove the artistic merit of pop culture artefacts through the sonification of my obsession with acetylene blue and its use in those artefacts (all the Frost Mage spells in World of Warcraft, the ice-blue eyes of the White Walkers in Game of Thrones, and Sub-Zero’s ice-cold fatality in Mortal Kombat 3 among others). In most cases, acetylene blue denotes the Supernatural, the Villain, the Other, or some combination thereof.
Sound World in a Cube is a mixdown for an immersive environment. I composed the original soundscape for the hundred-plus speakers in the Cube, a high density loudspeaker array in the Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech.
Having read a most of Tolkien’s works, I am intimately familiar with the idea of sub-creation. Since he places music in such high regard–it is the instrument of creation in The Silmarillion— I thought I might create my own musical version of his creation myth. This was an orchestral sketch of that embryonic work, and a project I hope to return to and expand. The musicians were picked from among Ithaca College’s music ensembles, with sound recording and engineering by Deniz Arkali.
The photograph is a shipping container turned Kaleidoscope Art Tunnel created for the 2013 Kobe Biennale by Masakazu Shirane and Saya Miyazaki. The sounds in this track were for a haiku project from a sound design class. We were allowed to choose a haiku to sonify, and I chose the following: Kaleidoscope:the little sound of a star,shattering. -Ellen Compton
I Do What I Want was my first public attempt at EDM. Most of my music up to this point was common-practice based (the sort of thing one hears in conservatory). It failed miserably: the minute I found didgeridoo sounds in the local sound library, I knew the jig was up, and I thought, “screw the rules: I do what I want!” And that’s how the track got its name.
Sturm und Drang is a remix of, “Transgenic” by Trifonic (ccMixter.org). Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license. Edited in Ableton Live. Using drumsticks, chopsticks, and modified recordings of raspy breathing and thunderclaps, I sculpted a highly resonant sonic environment. With the right speakers, the sheer intensity should overwhelm the listener.