Diamorphoses (vinyl)

Diamorphoses is the first electroacoustic work by Xenakis. Composed in the GRM, the historical studio of
musique concrète, it uses the laKer’s techniques: recordings of sounds are transformed via tape operations and
mixings. The recordings belong to various sources: earthquakes, jets take‐offs, skips’ shocks, musical
instruments (bells, winds), etc.

While using the techniques of musique concrète, Diamorphoses does not belong to its aesthetics as conceptualised by Pierre Schaeffer. Schaeffer introduced noise into music, but he retained from tradition the definition of music as a language, a definition which involves the idea of a double articulation: material and syntax.

But the new material (noise) was rather difficult to be subjected to a hypothetical syntax. That is why Schaeffer developed the theory of the “sound object”, which treats noise as a new minimal unity, like the traditional musical note.

For this reason, Schaeffer says, the sound objects should not be too long, neither eccentric, etc. Diamorphoses is in opposition to this point of view. Its sounds are “too” long, they are “eccentric”! Their sources are quite often recognizable, while a “sound object” should be an abstract sonic unit, etc. As in his instrumental music, Xenakis’ electroacoustic music breaks the oppositon material/syntax.

So, one of the main aim of Diamorphoses is to build complex sonorities emerging directly from
the basic sound sources. That is why this piece is characterized by the melody of noises – and not by their combination