Program Notes
Beijing is an exploration of everyday sounds sampled from Beijing, specifically in the area close to Bei Da and the Stanford Center at Peking University. It is written in three parts: subway, food, and traffic sounds. Nothing is synthesized from the ground-up; every sound has a recording from Beijing as its source. The sounds are sent to many of the hemispherical speakers -- while recognizable, they are processed in real-time to various degrees, forming harmonic chords and rhythmical patterns.