Entry 1: Adrian Moore – Junky

Spherical and fluid are the first words that come to my mind after listening this work, and I say fluid not as to mean predictable but rather that the piece flows well and has a good sense of direction. To clarify, I felt this piece was constantly moving towards a seris of points, and the direction would change each time it reached one of these points (a musical connect the dots game if you will). Anyhow, this constant movement and the textures contained within it sounded very spherical in their nature, and many sound ideas seemed to swoop by as if they were in an orbit that was gradually quickening. This brings me to the layers of sound used to construct the textures throughout this work. In each section there is a foundation layer established that is repititious in nature that continues or gradually changes regardless of what the layers above it are doing until the piece transitions to the next section. Then there are the orbiting or swooping layers that I mentioned which are much more active as they are the sound ideas that intensify the piece and lead it to climax points. This layering technique is very facinating to me as it balances the expected and unexpected elements in this piece in an interesting way, and creates a great sense of direction. Like many electronic works, this piece is very visual for me, and when I close my I eyes I can see the musical layers interacting with eath other in something that resembles a miniature solar system. The foundaton layer is this unstable ball of energy with all of the other layers orbiting around it at different angles and speeds, and as the orbital layers begin to move faster and faster the foundation layer transforms and it begins again. This piece has a meditative feel to it with its slow unfolding nature and drone-like tonality at points, but it also grabs a hold of the listener and goes on rollercoster ride with the swirling sounds and textures that fluidly grow out of the piece. To be more concise, Moore makes great use of contrast and he does it seemlessly. Although I really like Moore’s use of repitition to setup layers, I feel that some of his cycles go on to long and start to get stagnent, but then again this builds a tension which might not be there otherwise. I’ve also noticed that there are hardly any abrupt dynamic changes in this work, and while I realize this plays a role creating the fluid atmosphere of the piece, I felt there were moments that could have sudden burst of sound. Overall, I really enjoyed Moore’s textures and direction and their trance-inducing qualities.