Someone suggested that Suss Müsik repost our contributions to the weekly Disquiet Junto projects, because they enjoy reading the explanations of the tracks. While you’re reading the original post, make sure you check out the other contributors’ works as well.
Suss Müsik recorded household sounds whose primary functions are to help us remember something: an alarm clock reminds us that it’s time to wake up; a beep on the refrigerator tells us that the door has been left open; a laundry buzzer indicates that our clothes need to be removed from the dryer. In the meantime, the soothing hum of an air purifier reminds us that we are surrounded by dust mites (a fact of science we would be more than happy to forget).
Existentialist literature considers forgetfulness to be an essential attribute of the human condition. In The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, Milan Kundera describes characters for whom “space is an obstacle to progress.” The Danish philosophy Søren Kierkegaard once noted that “the most painful state of being is remembering the future, particularly the one you’ll never have.” Jean-Paul Sartre sang, “Ha! to forget. How childish! How can you keep yourself from existing?” And Charles Bukowski advises us to never forget anything, ever, because “There is always somebody or something waiting for you.”
For this weird and creepy piece, Suss Müsik composed a library from the domestic sounds of everyday forgetting. You’ll hear the items already described, plus amplified room noise and the thump of a refrigerator door closing. The sounds were assembled rhythmically with minimal treatment, except for some light sampling of the dryer buzzer (resembling an oboe or bassoon) which was randomly played with an EWI device.
The piece is titled Destinesia, an urban slang term describing an instance in which one forgets the purpose of a journey upon reaching their destination. The image is an architect’s compass.