SPECTRAL CITY (in memoriam Jane Jacobs)

Every city has a chord resonating through it, below our range of hearing.  This chord is the combination of the city's acoustic signature and the happenings that take place within it --  cars,  people, every activity of life reverberating through architecture and landscape.  Sounds, like memories, never completely dissipate, merely growing quieter and quieter, sinking below the noise floor and merging with the hum of the city.  Spectral City listens to its location, using techniques of spectral extraction and  accumulation to capture and suspend the most prominent pitches.  By slowing down time to reveal space, this piece reveals the deep structures of sound which permeate us, the unique harmony underlying every location.