"since i released my cd "hypernatural" in 1999, i have used the gong as a symbol of light in my works. this is because for thousands of years, the gong has been used as a symbol of the sun in countless rituals based on rice cultivation cultures throughout east asia, and of course the sound itself reminds me of brilliance. but for live performances i needed a more flexible instrument with a scale to it. that's when i got into the steel pan. as i started to look into the literature on this instrument, i soon felt an urge to make one myself. i wanted a hands on experience to actually feel "how it sounds", and plus come up with an instrument with a distinctive scale of its own. i called my mock steel pan "amorphone" (amorphous + phone, the amorfon label which i founded is also named after it), and in 2001, i started to play this instrument with max/msp (programmable software) . structure-wise, i emulated traditional indian improvised music, and max/msp provided me with continuing sound textures, drones born from particles of processed steel pan sounds, to support my performance. i've experimented with this setup playing various pieces, continually improving and developing the program. this album, however, is made up of improvisations using various order-made steel pans, without the max/msp treatment, and some of the pieces were recorded using 2 or 3 channel multitrack recording. in my previous album "infinite flowers", i tried to express an image of partials of sound assembling to form the whole texture. this time, i had a different perspective, that the whole is made up of the spaces and relationships between each sound. except on the one piece "bloom", where i acoustically create "particle textures", the sound often stops, but then continues, just like a leaf wafting in the air. similar phrases appear time and time again, but they are not organized in any way. the music is different from fugue, gamelan or part's tintinnabulation. in recent years, i've created music in the motif of flowers. and most flowers are shaped to radiate out like light, as is the shape of the steel pan." (label info)
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