...gathering knowledge for the arts.
Et Cetera "...and so on", smoothly blends computer generated music and sound with video imagery to elute a cinematic art form that transcends the classic auditory concert into an electro-acoustic multimedia experience where computers assist the composer to allow for greater modes of expression. For the audience these multimedia compositions are at once provocative and challenging on several levels, eliciting powerful emotions that expand into the aesthetics, the psyche, humanity, and the scientific all uniquely significant to their production. Sal Sofia is one of the few neo-contemporary composers using computer generated music and multimedia interactively to produce "approachable" art for the lay art enthusiast as well as the expert.
(Sal Sofia) SASP. (ASCAP)
Sal Sofia, computer synthesis programming, sound design,
signal, images and movie processing.
(Sal Sofia) SASP. (ASCAP)
Brianna Atwell, viola • Douglas Niemela, bass • Sal Sofia, percussion,
computer synthesis programming, sound design, signal, images and movie processing.
(Sal Sofia) SASP. (ASCAP)
Sal Sofia, computer synthesis programming, sound design,
signal, images and movie processing.
In the multimedia version of Music of Silence Sofia orchestrates a sound-scape of music with vivid optical graphics to create a metaphor that perceives the "music" that silently plays each moment in a day. True to his musical form, from the first "note" the music is engaging, full of intrigue and mystery teasing the listener into anticipating the next sound all the while he skillfully, alternately intermeshes and intermixes the musical composition with the video to congeal with a dynamic flow that does not disappoint the audience to the very last note. Consistent as well with his graphic style, he builds upon ancient classic iconism to fast forward into the present using transitory graphic symbolism (tunneling effects) with sounds reminiscent of passing time (bells chiming), creating a momentous layering of events to climax into a relaxing, hypnotic state punctuated with rhythmic pulses and water sounds. In all, the journey is suggestive of wonder, drama, profundity, and climax, giving birth to life of yet another new day. Film of the environs at Greenlake, Seattle, Washington. Music of Silence was selected by the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC) for Video Installation Screening at the ICMC in Sweden.
Dancing In The Shadow is an opus of music and graphics, a telling tapestry of sound and design of architectonic skill so prevalent in Sofia's compositional style. On the macro level it is a sobering account or questioning of humanity's "dance" throughout time - how societies, created for social order, sustain life or is it the reverse, does life sustain the structure. Importantly too, is Dancing In The Shadow on a micro scale, as an account of one person's dance through life situations - the delicate, tip-toe balance for familial and financial integrity within the political complexity of present day society. Sofia's spectacular use of geometric shapes and parametric design with his blend of chromatic and achromatic colors combine to ebb and flow like life itself with the patterns of society, past, present and future, and the puzzle pieces of a rat race maze yet the choice of nuance is ever present. The music composition likewise, contains tonal and atonal sound-scapes, juxtaposed with a predominant beautiful yet sombre melody played by the bass strongly punctuated by the viola together with percussion accents and rhythmic phrasing patterns to suggest the wonderment and surprise in the piece. Both the film and music interplay dynamically - what is in the background becomes a shape in the foreground, likewise musically, what instrument has been playing in the "shadow" of the main instrument comes to play in the fore and what is in the shadow can emerge to become the wind upon which we soar. Film of Edmonds "Bowl", Edmonds, Washington.
The Courtyard of Miracles is truly a poetic metaphor inspired by children, their dreams and their innocence. The worlds children create, wondrous with color, passion and perfect in its non-complexity are interpreted in Sofia's "Courtyard." A landscape and soundscape of "miracles," reminiscent of childhood experiences where children run and play in courtyards, when chaotic voices shout in unison, and imaginary worlds dreamy in vivid living color, filled with mysterious sounds and wizards are more real than fantasy, set the compositional stage for The Courtyard of Miracles. Ever present in the video are capable, caring hands shaping a world, lush and fertile, calm and mystical. The image of a person can be seen recurrently in the various world(s) as perhaps the child projects themselves into their dream world. The musical sounds are dreamy, wondrous and mysterious punctuated intermittently with children's voices at play until the very end when a young child voices a wish "to be in the sky." It is during this freedom to dream that we shape our character and ideals to become the adult we are. When sometime the dream seems to have gone, remember the child in yourself and dare to dream once again. Filmed at Pottery Northwest, Seattle, Washington and Edmonds Golf Course, Edmonds. Recording at Greenlake Children's Park, Seattle.