Inertia-Activity - Eric Du

The main motivation behind this composition is "movement vs. state”--how an inert, unchanging location facilitates movement and direction--and how an environment can feel at once familiar and yet take on surreal qualities in the right context.

The chosen location was the Union/University crossing. The crossing was immediately appealing due to its very memorable crossing indicator sound. To me, the sound of the crossing is so inseparable from its location that any transformations made to the sound itself become transformations made to the location itself, in a way. (This was probably a popular spot for compositions--I hope it wasn’t too cliche). Recordings were taken at day and at night in an attempt to better capture changes in state and mood. All sounds were recorded on-site. In the spirit of incorporating a representation of location in the composition, I have also tried to convey a sense of scale and differences in scale. Some elements intended to sound more distant and encompassing, while some elements are intended to sound intimately close and internalized. I made an attempt to utilize the 360-degree binaural effect in helping me space sounds.