Ben Glas
“music* *?”
Room40
Humans are pattern-finding animals. Given any set of random information, we will go about finding connections—a tendency called apophenia. This can lead to misinterpretations of the surrounding world, like seeing faces in inanimate objects or hearing melody and rhythm in random sounds. Ben Glas takes this phenomenon as the starting point for “music* *?”, an album which, as the title suggests, asks what music really is, and what role our minds play in constructing it.
“music* *?” comprises seven pieces based on different audial phenomena, like phasing or acoustic beating. We can’t call them compositions in the traditional sense because there are no composed melodies here, just raw sound. But there’s a magic trick: we still hear music, and good music at that. Like Maryanne Amacher’s work, “music* *?” straddles the line between science and art to create uncanny psychoacoustic effects.
Take “Untitled I”: there is nothing but noise here. Play it loudly enough, however, and you begin to discern melodies in the static, as if there is a radio station just out of range. Sometimes the effect is straightforward, as with the overwhelming organ tones of “Untitled VI,” which sounds like Tim Hecker in overdrive. At other times, it can be disorienting, like the feeling of simultaneous acceleration and deceleration on “Untitled III.”
Of course, an extreme form of apophenia is paranoia, and these tracks can inspire an eerie feeling that what you’re hearing is not really there in a true sense. For example, “Untitled II” features a humming tone that sounds almost like a voice, with sparkling, chiming melodies underneath. Or at least, I think it does. As with much of “music* *?”, one can never be sure which elements are real and which are illusions—but it’s a lot of fun trying to figure it out.
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