Abstract

Conduit is a multichannel electroacoustic composition which aims to explore the compositional possibilities of time-stretching based on phase vocoder technology, particularly related to the qualitative change in the character of sounds with dynamic and rapid time-varying characteristics, such as liquids flowing through various conduits (with instances of recordings taken from rivers, streams and the pipes and radiators of a heating system). The sound transformation processes based on the phase vocoder are perceived as changing the state of the liquid to a gas, with the splashes of water turning to anthropomorphic hisses as the playback rate is slowed. This process mirrors a physical one as some of the other elements of recorded material explore recordings of steam radiators in the reverse process of a transformation from gas to liquid.