discophaisto
Recorders, viola da gamba, harpsichord, drum machine.
discophaisto is inspired by the Phaistos Disk, a prehistoric disk which contains 61 words on its two sides of which the meaning still remains a mystery. I became interested in this in relation to the exploration of musical codes and the limits of language. In researching the subject I came across a convincing theory that the disk is perhaps a hoax created by Luigi Pernier, an Italian archaeologist, who "discovered" it in 1908 in the Minoan palace of Phaistos on Crete. This elevated the object in my mind from mundane relic to conceptual artwork.
The composition is playful in character, and uses sounds form the famous 80s 808 drum machine slowly morphing over the material of the trio. Their material in turn is built on evolving phrases in which are encoded all the 61 words of the Phaistos Disk. The meaning of the original text is still unknown, or it could just be nonsense - music in other words.
The piece is written for and dedicated to the players of the Roentgen Connection.