musique plastique

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mike hallenbeck

It seems to me that vibration, apprehension, and recollection constitute a perpetual feedback loop. Infinite variables influence each step, and each step revises the occurrence of the others according to infinitely fluid parameters.

These elastic assumptions have led me to call my sound work musique plastique. I've become preoccupied with the margins and thresholds of sound, the incidental and parenthetical, with the transitions between sounds or between sound and so-called silence-- the moments where assumed boundaries blur and dissolve, where the constancy of mutability is revealed.

I think of my role in creating this music as that of a mediator or facilitator. The task is to let a piece compose itself as much as possible. Even when I've heavily manipulated a piece of audio, the aim is to let it reveal itself rather than to impose my will on it. The process is more about listening than anything else.

To make this music is to open a small window on infinity, to activate the gloriously faulty perceptual faculties of listening and documentation. On the one hand, the archival impulse is fraught with complication. On the other hand, that our senses open us to a world of infinite potential is cause for celebration.

Thanks for your time.

--Mike Hallenbeck

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