I have always been fascinated by this topic [Stray Light] and its definition, and its (dis)function. This subtle kind of ghostly presence that is injecting havoc on data and perception. Stray light is a phenomenon which occurs in natural and artificial optical systems where light has deviated from its source. It's an unintended, eerie artifact, an error of sorts that can disrupt the design of a given system in many ways. This light that has gone astray, wandered, floated away into new pathways, in a sense becoming a new source separate from its original source, can be measured with software, the measurements translated into new data, the new data interpreted into data of adjustment and correction...that new data can theoretically be transformed into synthesized audio information. In other words, light turned into sound: visual-audio alchemy.
The poetic, surreal, paradoxical quality of this idea of light slithering, flowing away like water, like fog, hovering beyond its original design source as if it were a curious animal or a ghost who has grown tired of haunting its previous domain as well as the notion of alchemically transmuting light into sound through data processing, has many profound, imagination exploding possibilities. If this light can be processed into data, the data into synthesized sound, what if fictional, imaginary instruments could then be constructed via this synthesis? What would this orchestra, this ensemble of digitized ghost light sound like? Would the compositions culled from the digital ghost light create new pathways, possibilities of deviation in the mind of the listener? Could this create "stray sound" in the imagination of the listener, independent from its source, just as the ghost of stray light wandered from its source and became new data to be turned into sound in the computer?
This was the creative catalyst of my new double album, Stray Light. Data was gathered from stray light measurements, and this data was then, through synthesis and sound design, turned into patches (individual sounds) to be programed, arranged, sequenced and played back through the Elektron Analog4, an instrument perfectly suited for improvisational synth work. The effect of these improvised compositions yielded interesting, bizarre results. The ultra technical conceptual impetus of Stray Light lies in the heavy esoterica of math and engineering, but the manipulation and playfulness of the process of composing music with the synthesized data is more like drawing, painting, or sculpting. The resulting compositions are auditory daydreams, sonic ghosts liberated from their old cobwebs and shadows, eerie chamber music heard in the background while gazing into alien crystal balls, or abstract Muzak for corridors and waiting rooms in cities of the far future whose inhabitants aren't sure if they're light that has gone astray, ghosts set free to haunt new places, or both.
-Sleep Clinic (March 2017, Los Angeles)
