Frieze for a Friend

Siegfried Koepf 2023

Program note

Frieze for a Friend is a series of electronic compositions in which the raw material of individual audio files – taken from my now huge digital audio archive – where analyzed, cut into small pieces and reassembled according to geometric criteria. In contrast to granular synthesis, the digital snippets have been left unprocessed, they have simply been re-sorted. The time structure of the generated musical form resembles a handmade frieze where the ornamental elements are unambiguously similar but not perfectly identical. The process of subtle changes resulting from the sequence of these elements is contrasting to the uniformity of the frieze-form.

The first piece in the series was synthesized from the samples of Clarence Barlow's ISIStudie 4: Ceci n'est pas une œuvre d'art. The second is based on the compilation of the recorded voice messages that he has left on my answering machine.

Frieze for a Friend No. 1 and No. 2 are dedicated to Clarence Barlow.