Cannot Not

Popular Contexts

2010 30 minutes For piano and sampler. For Mark Knoop

Popular Contexts combines pre-recorded sounds with live instrumental music. The recordings consist of familiar sounds from popular and everyday culture, such as a flight safety announcement, a rollercoaster ride, a photocopier, phone sex and a football crowd. The instrumental music is equally varied, made of abstract textures, mimetic sounds, banal melodies and saccharine musical styles. These prosaic elements are presented, combined and transformed in strange ways. I want to open up a listening experience that enhances perceptions of the familiar, and draws attention to sounds that we usually ignore or don't take seriously.

Free Sound
Progressive Clock, Alarm Rock
Partial Pastoral Lobotomy
Resonant Coupling
Weird Twin
Discharge

Mark Knoop, piano and sampler