“not an y thing?” is a duet in which a live spoken voice interacts with pre-recorded manipulated copies of itself. The work chronicles the narrator’s struggle to ascertain what – if anything – is actually real. The text is presented in a manner that suggests there may be a deeper meaning beneath the unapologetically absurd words. (There isn’t.)

Structurally, the work is divided into 7 sections, alternating between “dialogues” and “hallucinations”. Dialogues feature apparent interaction between the “live” and pre-recorded voices: they seem to blend and finish each other’s statements. Hallucinations are wild and dense, and the live voice’s frenzied gibbering seems to have no effect whatsoever on the pre-recorded voices. As the piece progresses, the hallucinations grow longer and more complicated, and the dialogues grow shorter and more sparse. The final dialogue heralds a subtle change in the relationship between the live and pre-recorded voices. By the end, they are no longer interacting as equals; instead, the ominous recorded voice seems to be dictating to the narrator…

“not an y thing?” was created in Protools, constructed entirely out of samples of the composer’s voice.

Source: CEC / Concordia Archival Project (CAP)