6x4

Program Notes

6x4 is a structured improvisation for saxophonist, computer musician, and a 24-voice ensemble built using Somax2, IRCAM’s real-time machine improvisation framework. The ensemble is arranged in a 4×6 matrix, with each player generating a distinct voice part from a custom corpus, including hand-composed phrases and sampled fragments of Neuromancer, Pauline Oliveros, ambient textures, and more. The six columns represent evolving stages of the piece; each stage activates a geometric network of players spanning current and past columns, as visualized in the accompanying display. Together, the human and machine traverse this shifting landscape in a dialogue of memory, fragmentation, and emergence.

Composer Notes

Composing a piece with rigid part relationships but random individual parts was something I’ve never experienced. It led to a puzzle of which parts (“agents”) I wanted to control and which parts I figured should be almost static. Because of the software features within Somax2, I had to think of music and its structure as a part-relationship graph where parts are “nodes” and who they are listening to are “edges”. This is very different than big band composing, where many parts are allowed to change in what they play and when they play. Ultimately what we made was something that pushed the limits of Aleksandra and I, and for that I am grateful. We felt the software lent itself towards the media Neuromancer (my favorite book), Blame! and Oliveros. Also listen for some Willy Wonka, whose rowboat scene forever scarred me.

-- Matthew Michalek