M4: AI Phantasy

Kokoras is an internationally award-winning composer and computer music innovator, and currently Professor of composition and CEMI director (Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia) at the University of North Texas. Born in Greece, he studied classical guitar and composition in Athens, Greece and York, England | he taught for many years at Aristotle University in Thessaloniki. Kokoras's sound compositions use sound as the only structural unit. His concept of "holophonic musical texture" describes his goal that each independent sound (phonos), contributes equally into the synthesis of the total (holos). In both instrumental and electroacoustic writing, his music calls upon a "virtuosity of sound," a hyper-idiomatic writing which emphasizes on the precise production of variable sound possibilities and the correct distinction between one timbre and another to convey the musical ideas and structure of the piece. His compositional output is also informed by musical research in Music Information Retrieval compositional strategies, Extended techniques, Tactile sound, Hyperidiomaticity, Robotics, Sound and Consciousness. More information at http://www.panayiotiskokoras.com

AI Phantasy was composed at the GRIS multichannel studio, the University of Montreal in Quebec, Canada; the sound dome MEIT theater at the Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia, University of North Texas, and my home studio.

One of the main sound-producing mechanisms in the piece is a vacuum cleaner. The airflow travels from the motor through the suction hose and telescopic tube to the end nozzle. The excitation signal is produced by various membranes and other probs vibrating at the end of the suction tube. Then the sound is modulated following the Fab Synthesis paradigm, a sound synthesis practice I used throughout the piece. The idea of generating sound by air suction posed several challenges but also gave me the kind of sounds I imagined for this piece. In addition, I developed a series of circular pan flute kind of sound generators which could rotate electromechanically in variable speeds. In this case, the airflow generator was an air pump compressor. I used a modified airbrush attachment to control airflow and direction. The result sounded as a hyper-pan flute with unique sound possibilities.

In AI Phantasy, among various sound treatments, I used extensively commercial software utilizing machine learning audio search and classification features such as Accusonus Regroover, Izotope RX, Orchidea, Sononym, among others. The word Phantasy refers to a phantasy with “Ph” as a state of mind of an infant child during the early stages of development. Phantasies are constructed from internal and external reality, modified by feelings and emotions, and then projected into both real and imaginary objects. On the other hand, Fantasy (with “F”) is a reverie, a daydream, an imagined unreality that anyone can create. We fantasize consciously about future possibilities and fulfillment of our basic needs and wishes. Fantasies may well include elements of the deeper unconscious phantasies.