Dive Process (2014)

Duration: 5:00
Instrumentation: Vibraphone, Clarinet, Violin, Video, Tape
Commissioned by: Ensemble Offspring, Supported by Australia Council For The Arts
Premiered by: Ensemble Offspring at Metropolis Festival Melbourne, June 2015
Additional Performances:Ensemble Offspring at Light is Calling, Sydney, October 2015; Ensemble Offspring at BackStage Music Series - Ensemble Offspring + Hatched, Sydney, Thursday, 6 July 2017

Program Notes

Dive Process is an exploration of polyrhythmic patterns in sound and vision. The Violin, Clarinet and Vibraphone repeat patterns of 6, 7, and 8 measures in length respectively. These cycles are mirrored by the looped video footage of the divers; each part is always represented by one or more divers on screen. This is most noticeable at the beginning of each cycle, aligning with the splash which can be seen and heard coinciding with the first note of the pattern.

As the phrases are developed into more complex iterations, the divers on screen also multiply into a kaleidoscope of synchronised motion. Despite the increasing complexity, the original cycles dictate the form throughout, and the piece comes to its close when the 3 parts finally realign. In this way I aim to discover a kind of complexity which is grown from simplicity.

Dive Process is part of a continuing pursuit in my practice to elucidate interesting rhythmic and temporal patterns in both sound and vision. The music and images are composed together as a single integrated work, so that the complex rhythms maybe seen as well as heard. The result is a kind of audiovisual music where repetition strips the images of their representative power, allowing the rhythmic motion of the image to become part of the abstract form of the music.

Reviews

Partial Durations
Ensemble Offspring’s Metropolis programme included the world première of audiovisual artist Chris Perren’s Dive Process. In Dive Process, Perren builds on his recent experiments with musical and video phasing. Dive Process uses a retro video of a girl diving into water. The video is reversed and replayed at her point of entry into the pool, creating a rhythmic explosion and contraction of bubbles.