Interactions Subatomiques by mc.gender

The original inspiration for this piece came from watching a cloud chamber, a device that uses super-cooled alcohol vapor to visualize sub-atomic particles, things that make up all matter on this wonderful planet. Radioactive decay is all around us constantly, from natural uranium, radon, and other sources found within the Earth's crust. It's interesting to see inside a cloud chamber the number of sub-atomic particles humans are exposed to under relatively normal conditions: electrons, neutrinos, and the occasional alpha particle (helium). I was particularly struck by their random motion, and the energy with which they zipped about the cloud chamber.

This suite is a tour-de-force of granular synthesis techniques pulling mostly from the work of Horacio Vaggione. The texture of "Beta Decay" is largely different however from its other two counterparts, as I sourced much inspiration from Curtis Roads' "Point Line Cloud."

mc.gender is an organist and electroacoustic composer living in Minnesota, USA. He specializes in granular and particle synthesis, noise, modular systems, and musique concrète.