Decimation in A-flat and F-minor - Configured for Piano
Shipsides and Beggs Projects
Audio artwork (inc. 12 inch vinyl record)
31min
2018
Decimation in A-flat and F-minor. Commissioned 12inch vinyl record. 31mins.
A terrifying policy of the Italian Army in WW1 was that of Decimation, where one in ten soldiers were randomly selected and executed if any soldier in that section was thought guilty of cowardice. The audio work in the form of 12” record vinyl and will be played on a record player. It takes the elevation data of the 1916 Italian mountain frontier and transcodes it into musical partition, transforming that data into a topological sound piece. Configured for two pianos playing in chords A-flat and F-minor the work takes on a beautiful but haunting musical form.
More information and documentation on this work can be found here:
danshipsides.com/DshipsidesWeb/DECIAF.html
The work exists in several forms:
as Pure Data electronical output audio data file
as a vinyl record pressed using the audio file
as transferred into music notation for musicians to play (a professional pianist will perform the work in LA Cuisine in September 2018)
A raw version of this concept was performed with guitar, drums, electronics and other instruments at Microclima in Venice in 2017 and makes up the spine of a series of edited videos called THE IRON WAY (this audio work as orginally called Decimation in D and was the basis of this matured work).
