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’s art school education included an instructor who advised his students to explore “the romance” of whatever we were drawing. The romance of the drape, the romance of the still life, the romance of the human form, etc.
According to his biography, the work of Steven Geddes is a conscious exploration of the “tactile, textural, sensuous[,] formal and expressive” properties of his chosen materials. Porcelain, woven fabric, pen-and-ink — these substances offer Geddes a rich tapestry of “disembodied recombinations” with which to disrupt our senses.
For this short piece, Suss Müsik composed a three-chord piano phrase to roughly match the three rows in Geddes’ Notations sculpture. Each phrase was then played as a single sequence for a duration of three equal lengths. Little ceramic pots were struck for the percussive bits, while a CR-78 emulator and acoustic bass provide the spine. The ghostly wails were played with an EWI device to evoke Geddes’ Scottish Highlands upbringing; a squawky Korg synth modulator creates “space, rupture, blockage.”
The piece is titled Notaichean, a loose Scottish Gaelic translation of the word “notes.”