101010001012 (1012)

This soundscape pivots a solo violin against the soundworld of the Hypertechnik. No distinction is made between sound samples collected from either real or synthesised sources. The CD backing is a conglomerate of sounds from various industrial sites, street noises, marketplaces and town squares in Vienna, an original Japanese fish market (kindly donated to Salecich's sound collection), horn, saxophone and bass clarinet multiphonics, specialised instrument effects, and some of Salecich's own violin playing.
101010001012(1012) is the multi-layering and juxtaposition of the “real” world, pitted against sampled drum kicks, clicks and cuts, and manipulated and filtered recordings of Beethoven, Debussy, my own orchestral work Ordynov and string composition Concerto Grosso, a variety of popular music styles, and jazz.

This approach in 101010001012(1012) is based on a concept that Stockhausen referred to as

    building spatial depth by superimposition of layers, [which] enables us to compose perspectives in sound from close up to far away, analogous to the way we compose layers of melody and harmony in the two-dimensional plane of traditional music.
    Stockhausen on Music, 106

These layers are individually isolated, filtered and processed sounds, producing an awareness of new sounds within the mix when other layers drop out or when amassed and acutely juxtaposed. In 101010001012(1012), however, the violin symbolises the struggle the analogue world faces against the Hypertechnik, as the work is interpreted through the eyes of the fleeting music tourist. Towards the latter half of 101010001012(1012), the player is encouraged to improvise.
At times the violin fights its natural virtuosic self against the technical, becoming a slave to the system. It embraces many varying and obscure dichotomies within the CD backing - real sounds of the violin, street noises, sampling and electronic synthesis. With violin samples interwoven in the electronic soundscape, the real and surreal becomes indistinguishable.
Comprising mostly ones and zeros, the name for 101010001012(1012) is derived from typical binary computing language. The two in the title, however, is no error. It is a hypothetical symbol for the violin as it attempts to corrupt and distort the electronic superstructure. As acoustic instrument, the axiom remains: the violin is analogue; it will never be digital. Even so, within 101010001012(1012), the violin competes with the electronics and, with some degree of liberty, demonstrates its authority and desire to re-revolutionise binary computer-speak and change the way the digital world is viewed.
This work is the first composition by Salecich to be given a number, also m:no45227 experiments with the mixing of the acoustic and electronic soundworlds.