I'm intrigued: what can eight equidistant pure wave oscillators, while slipping very slowly to a unison, textually spatialised on eight speakers (to refer to the album by its full title) possibly sound like?
Just over three minutes have elapsed and I’ve head just a single continuous note. Or is it my tinnitus? No, it’s definitely the CD. The note’s wavering slightly. Well I think it is, or perhaps my mind’s playing tricks on me as the monotony causes my senses to alter what I’m hearing, creating a subtle undulation. No, not an undulation, more of a twisting in the tonality. But it’s definitely still the same note I’ve been hearing for six and a half minutes now. I suppose it’s a bit like a Doppler effect, only it’s not because there’s no real movement. I don’t even know for sure if the note is changing.
It’s quieter now, and as I reach the eight-minute mark, there are lower frequencies registering, barely audible, on the sonic spectrum. Possibly. But then again, possibly not. It might not be quieter after all: perhaps the sounds around me are increasing in volume, or it could be that I’m losing focus and tuning out.
13 minutes have passed now and the note has gone. In truth, it’s still there, but its volume is definitely lower and my auditory system has grown so accustomed to it, it no longer registers. I concentrate, straining to listen for the sound. I consider turning up the volume on my CD player, but why would I do that? I know what the note sounds like. It’s there, injected almost subliminally into my brain via my earphones. I can just sense it: I don’t need to hear it.
I go about my business, checking emails, jotting notes, the sound of conversation all around me pulling at my attention. But the note… the note’s still there. Seventeen minutes and counting.
The track has a duration of precisely an hour. I think I know how the rest of it’s going to sound. Perhaps I should fast forward to the end. But what if I’m wrong and I miss something? Skipping sections would be cheating too. If I did discern some change, I’d feel obliged to go back to the start and hear it in its true intended context. Half an hour now. My mind’s wandering. The note isn’t.
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I eat a bag of crisps. The crunch drowns it out, and when I finish, the note is gone. No, wait. A flicker on the graphic equalizer tells me different. I hold by breath. Yes, it’s still there, hovering somewhere I can’t readily identify. Time stretches and distorts as the seconds creep by. I keep thinking it’s faded out, I keep failing to notice whether it’s there or not. But I know it’s still there. 43 minutes gone and the note is a barren, monotonous wind over an ice-blasted mountain top, no gusts but a constant, steady hum. Has it changed? Maybe if I go back to the beginning and compare the two side by side… Yes! It definitely changed from the sound it was at the start. But when did it happen, and how? Was it a slow shift through a range of sounds, or…? At least it is has changed, and it’s not my mind or hearing that’s tricking me. I’m not going mad. Well, I hope not. But has it changed again? Is it still changing now? Was it always changing?
The end of the hour arrives and I am left with silence and my thoughts. The note has ended, yet in my head it rings on.
Reinhold Friedl Online
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