Sean Hamilton says his new album, released in July, “should be experienced from start to finish with no pause between tracks.” At nearly 50-minutes, that’s a stretch for the modern listener inundated with internet singles and blessed (cursed?) with the option to skip between album streams with just one click; however, LOCI is not for for everyone. The collection is compiled from a series of improvised compositions for drum set and real-time electronics, which means the electronics are generative and create sonic material in real-time as the piece unfolds.
“No material in the work exists prior to performance,” Hamilton, who works with the post-modern classical music series Hyperbolic Chamber Music, 25 told CL. LOCI features drums, electronic tones, but also great moments of quiet.
“I think of the silence as serving both a structural and musical role. The initial space provides a contrast to the two dense tracks before it and gives some aural space and breath for the listener,” said Hamilton, who has a master’s degree in music . “I also think of it as a means of transition moving forward into the brush work.” He is fresh off a gig doing audio work at the Vail International Dance Festival in Colorado and heads out to tour behind LOCI on Thursday.
On Saturday, September 2 he plays a homecoming show at the Venture Compound in St. Petersburg’s warehouse district. Glass Tongue, Trout in Paris, Meindlig and Gullwing play support. Listen to the whole of LOCI, and read our full chat with Hamilton, below then get more information on Hamilton’s upcoming show by visiting CL’s events calendar.
CL: How old are you?
Sean Hamilton: I'm 25.
Still directing Hyperbolic Chamber efforts I assume?
I'm still doing the HCM efforts. We should be rolling out more information on the year's series in the next coming weeks.
You have the Masters from USF, so what are you doing day-to-day?
Day-to-day I am primarily working as a freelance audio engineer and continuing my creative endeavors performing, composing, and collaborating. I just returned from doing audio work at the Vail International Dance Festival in Colorado and then head out for the LOCI tour Thursday.
Talk about the silence of tracks like “3” — what do you want listeners who aren’t familiar with what you do to get out of elements like that and the release in general?
Regarding the silence, I try to work with silence as I do with any other musical component; it can be important in a structural role or a musical role. To me silence is not nothing, but it is a negative space that is shaped, informed, and shaded by the the sounds around it. In that sense, I do spend some time working with the lengths, entrances, and exits of silence to make positive use of the silence.
In track “3,” I think of the silence as serving both a structural and musical role. The initial space provides a contrast to the two dense tracks before it and gives some aural space and breath for the listener. I also think of it as a means of transition moving forward into the brush work. So I guess to answer your question, to me there isn't really anything the listener should take away from the silence, but rather it's just as vital to the work as any note I actually strike.
As far as the release in general, I hope that the album can provide a means for reflection. I'm quite interested in creating a space that the listener can exist inside of, where the listener can create his/her own interpretation and meaning for the music and not necessarily be directed by my ideas, influences, or meanings. I also hope that the listener will approach the music as an entity that exists for its own sake. The sounds are the sounds, which carry their own weight and energies and don't necessary maintain a 1:1 ratio with a metaphorical meaning.
I also think that it is important to note that the electronics are generative, meaning they create sonic material in real-time as the piece unfolds; no material in the work exists prior to performance. The electronics really create material in two ways, either using information gathered from a handful of microphones on the drums, or by random numbers generated according to fixed parameters. For instance, the pitch of the tones in the last track are decided by the amplitude (volume) of a sample of the drumming recorded earlier in the piece. These are then spatialized between the left and right speakers determined by random numbers.
Essentially, the computer is improvising with me, creating material in response to my playing as well as in its own right, with every realization of the piece unique. I tend to think of it as one whole sonic entity that is a coexistence of acoustic and electronic. The electronics then are really an extension of my playing as opposed to being their own separate being.
This article appears in Aug 18-25, 2016.