"Hall of Mirrors" - A composition about reflection and reflecting

For the last several months my primary compositional focus has been on the creation of a substantial, conceptual electronic music work entitled "Hall of Mirrors."

As the title might imply, "Hall of Mirrors" is a work about the phenomena of reflection and reflecting, and the various meanings of the those words/concepts.

"Hall of Mirrors" has, for the most part, an atmospheric, oneiric quality. In fact, most of the movements could be considered to be soundscapes rather than compositions in the traditional sense. The purpose for this approach to the work is that it gives the listener a sense of being able to perceive, from a fixed point of reference, the musical "environment" or "landscape" rather than being carried along by a traditional musical narrative. At any rate, what might be considered the narrative of "Hall of Mirrors" is extra-musical (in the sense that it is not a purely musical concept but a psychological/phenomenological one).

"Hall of Mirrors" consists of "movements" which are divided by "mantras." The mantras serve, in part, to redirect the focus of the listener. In terms of musical symbolism, this represents a refocus of attention; of reflecting on something else.

This psychological/phenomenological/existential(ist) conception resulted in work where the darker "movements" alternate with sonically refreshing "mantras." The "mantras" are scored for (sampled) percussion instruments, many of them traditional percussion instruments of East Asia. Most of these percussion instruments are unpitched. The mantras' lack of much pitched material, again, has both practical and symbolic purposes.

In purely musical terms, "Hall of Mirrors" might be considered a study of timbre. The way the instruments are panned and the non-linear nature of the music often result in a sensation of the various sounds alternately vying for the attention of the listener. This musically symbolizes the various phenomena, both external and internal, that compete for our attention, and depending on the nature and source of the aforesaid phenomena, our need to turn either within or outside of ourselves as a form of escape.

I have released several excerpts of "Hall of Mirrors" on SoundCloud, and I may release several more in the next few months. Sometime this coming year I hope to release an album of the entire work, and perhaps include several other of my electronic music compositions.

Attached is a link to the first excerpt of "Hall of Mirrors."

https://soundcloud.com/michaelcalabris/hall-of-mirrors-movement-iii