Inside looking out (1992)

Can one at every moment “see” all of the structural details in a piece of music merely by listening? One looks at art, listens to music. While working on the piece, I played with the idea of an inverted relationship in which the the work of art looks out upon the viewer. A kind of role reversal of the meeting of the experience and the experienced. There is really nothing to reveal in music. Nevertheless music is a mysterious art. Relations, correspondences and form can be pointed out and explained but never revealed. Even in its simplest forms music behaves like an infinite Chinese puzzle. At the nearly static epicentre of the piece, there is a sound which is repeated several times. This is my voice speaking the phrase “inside looking out”. It has been filtered several times to produce a “ringing” bell-like sound. If one is informed about the phrase (and its special sound) the words are easily perceived. An uninformed listener, however, hears only one sound among other sounds. There are many “hidden” structures in music. If one wishes, one may try to find them. Until then they are sitting there, looking out like a kind of reasons antimatter.

“Inside looking out” was commissioned by the Danish Institute for Electro acoustic Music (DIEM) for the Athaeles Ensemble and composed between January-May 1992. The recording was done by KammarensembleN conducted by Jonas Dominique.