Music for Corridor

© 1997 Alysse Stepanian

Music for Corridor (1996) was inspired by The Hatchery, an installation by Alysse Stepanian. It was first heard as a sound installation in a seventy-foot long corridor at Factory Place in Los Angeles. The piece is composed of sampled sounds from three categories: domesticated animals, domesticated humans, and machines/engines. Each group of sounds is heard separately, in blocks that have been stacked in temporal space. The duration of each section has been determined by randomly selecting from eleven possibilities, ranging from 1 second to 2 minutes and 4 seconds. Each section includes sounds in their organic state and convoluted forms derived from the original sample. The corridor, a place of movement, seems a perfect setting for experiencing the juxtaposition of exaggerated motion and unyielding stasis.