MUSICAL WORKS

LEE Mei-ling

2005

Engram

Birth C: TAIWAN Gender: Female

Dest: Concert

Media Specification: Tape

Duration: 10:00

Perf media: 8-channel tape

Prog. notes: Engram was realized in Kyma and Pro Tools. Source audio is from the installation project Tracer by Jefferson Goolsby and Reza Safavi.

The piece opens with the reworked sound of a car being destroyed by sledgehammers, which—like the car—gradually disintigrates piece by piece. Eventually, the horn of a passing car, captured during the original destruction, becomes the dominant figure.

Engram represents a journey, using as its source the sound of transportation being destroyed. The piece opens as might a vivid experience in one’s life, whether terrifying, sorrowful, or joyous. We process the experience and it moves into memory. But as with any powerful experience, it may return to the front of our consciousness of its own volition, tranformed.

en·gram (ngrm) n

: a physical alteration thought to occur in living neural tissue in response to stimuli, posited as an explanation for memory.

Editor: MB