Music often imitates life: within a melody of a flute can be heard the song of a bird, orchestral arrangements can capture the fury of a storm, jazz can mimic all the complexities of bustling urban life. Rather than simply mimic life, Aaron Collier’s new piece goes a step further by allowing life itself to take on the mantel of composer.
“2014,” take from Collier’s original score for the critically acclaimed play Frequencies, is a complicated piece of work. The performance, written by Collier, Giller Prize-nominee Francesca Ekwuyasi, and Zuppa Theatre’s Stewart Legere, is part live concert, part confessional, examining a whole spectrum of existence. The score, appropriately, ambitiously tries to encompass all of that, resulting in a soundtrack that has essentially been composed by humanity.
The composition goes beyond Math Rock, beyond Techno, and into something we have to describe as Stats Rock. Collier has literally expressed real-world data in an audible form.
“After the rumbling and rising chords of the intro, you hear a series of different rhythms overlaid one by one. The first and most constant one you hear represents death, with each pulse representing a human death based on UN World Population data. I wanted to understand how frequently someone was experiencing what it is to die, how frequently people were experiencing losing someone,” explains Collier.
“The next rhythms represent people being diagnosed with breast cancer and HIV respectively, and then the rhythms of people being born. You begin to hear how the world is changing, how our population is increasing. I kept looking for more – could I hear the next generation? Of the females being born now, how many would likely have children and how many? How many cars are rolling off the assembly line? 2014 was a year in which a significant change occurred in me and I began to make the kind of choices that have led to the creation of Frequencies, and I hope the music conveys my sense of wonder and gratitude for my chance to be here.”
Collier keeps it to a tasteful level of notes, each bleep representing some key event somewhere that could easily reach a constant buzz if left to run amok. Aside from its musical quality “2014” is a fascinating look at how we are presented with, and, in turn, interpret data.
Collier will be presenting a sneak peek of the full Frequencies score with an album listening party at Good Robot Brewing Company in Halifax, NS on Thursday, October 7, while the full album will be released on November 6.