LA SERA DI BENEVENTO (1999)

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a soundscape composition for two digital soundtracks

La Sera di Benevento (or "Afternoon in Benevento") is a soundscape composition based on environmental sounds from the town of Benevento, Italy situated near Napoli. In particular, I imagined a hot, drowsy afternoon where the sounds of cicadas, a fountain and the local churchbell lull the listener into a reverie where these sounds mingle with a half-remembered lyric poem by the 14th century poet Giovanni Boccaccio (as read by Giorgio Magnanensi). The afternoon is framed by sequences recorded at the local train station where the arrival of a train is announced and leads the listener's "train of thought" into the afternoon's daydream.

La Sera di Benevento is available on the Cambridge Street Records CD Islands.

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Technical note:

The work was realized using the composer's PODX system which incorporates the DMX-1000 Digital Signal Processor controlled by a PDP Micro-11 computer with software for real-time granular synthesis and signal processing (such as digital resonators) developed by the composer in the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University. The sounds were recorded on 8-track digital tape and mixed down in the Sonic Research Studio at SFU.