(de)Constructed Ghosts: Liner Notes

Many questions remain in my mind. Are the rhythmic chirps and stutters of Embedded Controller, Acciaccatura and Silicon Phantom the remnants of computer files long erased, a computer "language" we've unwittingly created that now speaks back to us of its own accord, or even the protests of the underpaid Malaysian women who labored to assemble the microchips contained within the computer? Or are they simply truly "random" and "accidental" static patterns? Is the "song" audible toward the end of Liver Dance, derived from recent construction sounds at a Cambodian site, the ghost of the final, self-comforting hummed tune of a doomed victim of the Khmer Rouge from the 1970s? Or simply an "accidental" pitch variation produced by a primitive cement mixer in use at the site?

Are the eerie sonic phantoms which emerge from the fringes of the audible realm in the urban Seattle construction site documented in Ritual Dissection the cries of the noble, solid classical buildings of early 20th century Seattle, lamenting the short-sighted, money-hungry corporatists of our day as they crush and vanquish the old to build yet another flimsily constructed high rise? Or are these weird, deep reverberations just another example of the faceless random noise all around us, sounds we take for granted every day?

Whatever you may believe these sounds tell us, if they in fact carry any message at all, keep in mind the words of Henry Austin Dobson as you listen:

Time goes,you say? Ah no!

Alas, Time stays, we go.

-The Paradox of Time

We scurry about as nervous rats, rushing forward in search of the future, trying desperately to bury the memory of the past, while all the while it sits quietly and firmly in its place, patiently telling its story.

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