Aspects of Memory documents the first, free improvised electroacoustic meeting of Lawrence Casserley (b.1941), who plays his own custom-made signal-processing instrument, and Norwegian, Leeds-based drummer-percussionist Emil Karlsen (b.1998). The album was recorded at Huddersfield University in October 2023.

Casserley, known for his role in the Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic ensembles, has devoted his professional career to the creation and performance of real-time electroacoustic music, culminating in the development of his own unique device -the signal processing instrument, which allows him to use physical gestures to control the processing and to direct the morphology of the sounds. He says this electronic instrument may be likened to a musical time machine. «Time is at the core of our understanding of the world, and memory is at the core of our understanding of time. Both are fundamental to our perception of music. What happens to this understanding when ‘artificial memory interferes with our perceptions?»

The five pieces – «imagining», «Discerning», «Embodying», «Evoking», and «Experiencing» – address the issues of time and memory and suggest intriguing, resonant but also often quite cinematic textures that trigger unpredictable ways of constructing the listener’s conceptions of time and sonic memory. Casserley’s futurist, fragmented electronic sounds are embraced by Karlsen’s sparse and light percussive sounds that ground – literally – and resonate this atmospheric flow of sounds with an earthly, chaotic dimension. Often, they reverse their roles, and Karlsen’s resonates – literally – Casserley’s alien-like, percussive gestures.

Eyal Hareuveni

Lawrence Casserley (signal processing instrument), Emil Karlsen (drums, percussion)