Album Notes

Since the year 2000, Bangsplat (!*) has been exploring the possibilities of creating music with nothing more than a computer and audio software. Working with a fairly broad definition of the word "music", this exploration has resulted in five albums comprising a wide variety of sonic material, from processed bursts of pure noise to fully-developed experimental compositions.

Happenstance belongs to the latter category. Built from randomized synthesizers and processed bird songs, it uses the compact disc as the basis for performance of the composition, rather than simply as a recording of it.

The CD contains 62 tracks, each a small piece of the overall composition. It is designed to be played with the CD player in shuffle and repeat mode, resulting in a unique performance each time you play it. There is no predefined beginning or end; the piece lasts as long as you listen to it.

The samples available here are some of these tracks, not meant to be played independently from the rest. But they will give you a sense of what Happenstance as a whole sounds like.

The sound of that whole is consistent, despite the randomization of the specific details. The performance will be different with each play, but the overall tone will be the same: slow... quiet... relaxing... dark... a little ominous... These are ambient sounds, wholeheartedly couched in the tradition of Satie's Furniture Music; only every now and then they slap you to make sure you're sitting up straight and paying attention.

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Here are some non-random numbers:
2 versions
4 layers
62 tracks
71 minutes

There are four layers of sounds. Three of them are composed of notes recorded on an analog synthesizer and randomly sequenced. Each layer is largely comprised of a separate octave, although there is some overlap. Several hours of these sounds were generated and layered and from this snippets were selected.

The fourth layer is composed of heavily processed bird sounds released in a significantly purer form on Bangsplat's previous album, BirdStance. Snippets of this were selected as well.

There are two versions of Happenstance. The full version consists of four CDs, each containing one of the layers. All four discs are to be played simultaneously, with each player set to randomly shuffle.

For those without the ability to play four CDs simultaneously, the single-disc version is a mix-down of the four layers, and is to be played in the same manner.

This is the single-disc version of Happenstance, the play-at-home version, if you will.

***

Happenstance was inspired by other multiple-source music projects, notably those of Brian Eno (particularly his "Compact Forest Proposal" which was commissioned by the San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art) and The Flaming Lips ("The Boombox Experiments", "The Parking Lot Concerts" and "Zaireeka").

There are elements of each of these in Happenstance. Brian Eno developed the shuffle CD concept for Compact Forest Proposal, using several CDs all playing back elements of his composition. The Flaming Lips took a more do-it-yourself approach to Zaireeka, which involves playing back four CDs simultaneously, though there is no randomness involved.

Combining the concepts and techniques used by Eno, and the at-home approach of The Flaming Lips, Happenstance is an art installation in a jewel case, to be performed wherever there is a CD player (or four).