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Et Cetera++ is the audio version of Sofia's Et Cetera DVD with the addition of two cinematic pieces, Reflections of a Warrior and Beyond the Water Fountain. This eclectic collection of computer assisted music and sound is a melodic and rhythmic blend of tonal and atonal mixing with technology to create analogy with music and soundscapes - that provokes the listener to envision and to affect emotions allowing for personal interpretation of the artistic expression of the works.
(Sal Sofia) SASP. (ASCAP)
Sal Sofia, computer synthesis programming,
sound design, signal processing.
(Sal Sofia) SASP (ASCAP)
Sal Sofia, computer synthesis programming,
sound design, signal processing.
(Sal Sofia) SASP (ASCAP)
Sal Sofia, drums, computer synthesis programming,
sound design, signal processing.
(Sal Sofia) SASP. (ASCAP)
Brianna Atwell, viola • Douglas Niemela, bass • Sal Sofia, percussion,
computer synthesis programming, sound design, signal processing.
(Sal Sofia) SASP. (ASCAP)
Sal Sofia, computer synthesis programming,
sound design, signal processing.
In Music of Silence Sofia orchestrates a sound-scape of music with vivid optical graphics to create a metaphor that perceives the "music" that silently plays each moment in a day. True to his musical form, from the first "note" the music is engaging, full of intrigue and mystery teasing the listener into anticipating the next sound all the while he skillfully, alternately intermeshes and intermixes the musical composition with the video to congeal with a dynamic flow that does not disappoint the audience to the very last note. Consistent as well with his graphic style, he builds upon ancient classic iconism to fast forward into the present using transitory graphic symbolism (tunneling effects) with sounds reminiscent of passing time (bells chiming), creating a momentous layering of events to climax into a relaxing, hypnotic state punctuated with rhythmic pulses and water sounds. In all, the journey is suggestive of wonder, drama, profundity, and climax, giving birth to life of yet another new day. Film of the environs at Greenlake, Seattle, Washington. Music of Silence was selected by the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC) for Video Installation Screening at the ICMC in Sweden.
Reflections of a Warrior musically portrays the drama of acute momentous awareness of life and death in an enemy combat situation. The piece is expressively gestural to emphasize the phenomena of how long an instant of time can last while in a dangerous situation perhaps one on the opposite end of life; how time can be so compressed yet keep so much distinct detail while "a lifetime passes in front of a soldier's eyes" instinctively reflective on a subconscious level even while being the participant of intense decision and action.
Beyond the Water Fountain Compound rhythms layered with drums, percussion accessories, a cello playing a Bach prelude and other sounds from the "kitchen" create virtual scenes of a piazza echoing the history of events, the ordinary and the momentous, witnessed throughout time by the water fountain or fontana. Inspired from a narrow, cobble stoned street in Genova, Italy that opens into a large public square with a fountain and a little known monument that tells of an event from the early eighteenth century, that Sal walked often with his father, this cinematic music poem characterizes through dynamic sound juxtaposed with a short sequence from Bach's "Cello Suite Number Two," the gathering and gossip of neighbors, the quietude of night time, the chaotic mechanics of weaponry and war, the telling of the constant ebb and flow of life, symbolic of water and the fountain through the centuries.
Dancing In The Shadow is an opus of music and graphics, a telling tapestry of sound and design of architectonic skill so prevalent in Sofia's compositional style. On the macro level it is a sobering account or questioning of humanity's "dance" throughout time - how societies, created for social order, sustain life or is it the reverse, does life sustain the structure. Importantly too, is Dancing In The Shadow on a micro scale, as an account of one person's dance through life situations - the delicate, tip-toe balance for familial and financial integrity within the political complexity of present day society. Sofia's spectacular use of geometric shapes and parametric design with his blend of chromatic and achromatic colors combine to ebb and flow like life itself with the patterns of society, past, present and future, and the puzzle pieces of a rat race maze yet the choice of nuance is ever present. The music composition likewise, contains tonal and atonal sound-scapes, juxtaposed with a predominant beautiful yet sombre melody played by the bass strongly punctuated by the viola together with percussion accents and rhythmic phrasing patterns to suggest the wonderment and surprise in the piece. Both the film and music interplay dynamically - what is in the background becomes a shape in the foreground, likewise musically, what instrument has been playing in the "shadow" of the main instrument comes to play in the fore and what is in the shadow can emerge to become the wind upon which we soar. Film of Edmonds "Bowl", Edmonds, Washington.
The Courtyard of Miracles is truly a poetic metaphor inspired by children, their dreams and their innocence. The worlds children create, wondrous with color, passion and perfect in its non-complexity are interpreted in Sofia's "Courtyard." A landscape and soundscape of "miracles," reminiscent of childhood experiences where children run and play in courtyards, when chaotic voices shout in unison, and imaginary worlds dreamy in vivid living color, filled with mysterious sounds and wizards are more real than fantasy, set the compositional stage for The Courtyard of Miracles. Ever present in the video are capable, caring hands shaping a world, lush and fertile, calm and mystical. The image of a person can be seen recurrently in the various world(s) as perhaps the child projects themselves into their dream world. The musical sounds are dreamy, wondrous and mysterious punctuated intermittently with children's voices at play until the very end when a young child voices a wish "to be in the sky." It is during this freedom to dream that we shape our character and ideals to become the adult we are. When sometime the dream seems to have gone, remember the child in yourself and dare to dream once again. Filmed at Pottery Northwest, Seattle, Washington and Edmonds Golf Course, Edmonds. Recording at Greenlake Children's Park, Seattle.