list, computer-generated soundfile (1999)

list (make a list; listen) is meant to evoke a paradox: technology seems to be bringing music closer to nature. One of the more intriguing aspects of musical evolution in the 20th century is the shift from a paradigm of taming nature, most conspicuous in the Classical style but still implicit in most prewar music, to one of accepting nature on its own terms, exemplified by the introduction of chaotics and other ideas borrowed from physics into algorithmic composition. Music--especially electroacoustic music--now embraces the variegated noise and accidental rhythms of our environments. list disposes its materials accordingly. The materials themselves are taken from recordings of 20th-century music from Debussy to Parmerud, making list a sort of encrypted catalog and a remider that not only music, but also the way we listen to music, is being transformed by technology.

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