Genius Loci
By Bernhard Living
Especially commissioned for McLuhan’s Message, the ‘Genius Loci’ project is made up of ten two-minutes pieces. Each composition is based on a sound-bite from Marshall McLuhan, which in turn is accompanied by drones, beats and pulses that have been produced by feeding McLuhan’s voice into digital Reaktor-based samplers (Debris and Flakes by Twisted Tools).
01 Genius Loci 02:10
02 Simultaneous Resonance 02:10
03 Rapid Change 02:10
04 Mindless Identity 02:10
05 Ghost Theory 02:10
06 Resist Innovation 02:10
07 Light Bulb 02:10
08 Pattern Recognition 02:10
09 Visual Space 02:10
10 Technological Beats 02:10
Sleeve Notes
McLuhan often wrote about how speech and the voice would dominate over the written word in the electronic, and now digital, age – and so the ‘music’ for Genius Loci’ is made up entirely up from, and generated by, McLuhan’s own voice.
Through contemporary digital music production technology, McLuhan has been turned into a beat-boxing techno machine.
The term ‘Genius Loci’, is often translated as ‘spirit of place’. In classical pagan Roman religions it was a protective spirit.
Marshall McLuhan could be regarded as the sprit of net space and his presence, digital or not, seems to permeate not only everything that takes place there but also how we think about new digital technologies.
About Bernhard Living
Bernhard Living is an experimental music composer, multimedia producer, label owner and former multi-instrumentalist. He studied composition with the South African-born composer professor Stanley Glasser, at Goldsmiths College, University of London, and philsophy at Middlesex University, London.
www.bernhard-living.net