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The process of transforming "data" by  transferring it from photograph to drawing to sculpture took on a decidedly new dimension with the Suss Müsik collaboration.

After NON4, 2019 was created in direct response to the information found within the Suss Müsik compostition NON4 (see 04 NON4.mp3 file on this page).  The concepts I examined are speed, rail travel, passing in and out of light and shade, electicity, and the idea of Modernity. An image of After NON4 can be found in the recent work section of this website.

 - B. Madden

NON is a four-song album of electroacoustic pieces based on live improvisations conducted throughout the spring, summer and fall of 2018. Instrumentation includes piano, percussion, Moog synthesizers, electric guitar, primitive electronics, sampled wind instruments, hitting things, obfuscation. Much of the material was recorded live to 8-track in demo form and recomposed as a series of fields.

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​A border is a sort of marker between two systems that share common attributes. While national law varies between territories, organic science has no respect for governance. Which begs the question: does the universe abide by its own set of rules, to be unearthed through examination, or does discovery occur by chance?

“The way different people have come to the same discovery independently,” wrote William H. Whyte in his 1956 book The Organization Man, “refutes the ‘great-man’ concept we cherish. It’s mostly luck who makes a discovery. If there had been no Einstein there would, in all likelihood, still be a relativity theory.”

Artist Bernard Madden explores systems in nature as would a scientist, revealing hidden information and transforming meta-relationships into a new visual language. His work extrapolates these meanings into renderings of graphite, pigment and plaster, resting comfortably between avant-garde experimentation and traditional formalism. The piece Madden creates are beautifully disquieting yet energetically precise.

This piece, titled Limitrophe, is the first of a collaborative series between Suss Müsik and Bernard Madden. The first half is a series of layers: electronic fields of Moog-enhanced static, generated by an audio “scan” of Madden’s image. A base melody is performed on strings and accelerated during the piece’s coda, performed for fake orchestra using strings, brass and percussion. One field’s relative attributes informs the other, forming a clear delineation between the two approaches while maintaining their connective bond.

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Attaché is the second in a series of collaborations with artist Bernard Madden. The piece is written & performed on using woodwinds, Moog synth, strings, treated e-bow guitar, solo clarinet, solo violin, voice, electric piano, percussion, brass, found sound, obfuscation.

 - Suss Müsik

04 NON4.mp3Suss Müsik
00:00 / 05:46
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