Cell-Fate

Recordings

Microbiology plays such an essential role in my life. Recently, I’ve been reflecting a lot about cells’ lifespan, and how they originate, evolve, transform and eventually die. One of my best friends was diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer months ago. From our perspective, cancer is such a bad thing but life, for sure, is not anthropocentric. It seems to follow its own path, mostly out of our control. Today, thanks to recent studies of epigenetics, we discovered that the environment can alter our DNA. Love can change our DNA, as well as sound. I think of my sound fragments as undifferentiated (or partially differentiated) cells, like stem cells, whose fate is controlled by complex intracellular molecular regulatory networks. I embraced this perspective as a compositional method: proximity, relation, distribution, and interaction determine the behaviour of the sounds like in a biological system. Life is a network, we could simply not exist without plants, fungi and ultimately other humans. Sound offers an extraordinary framework within which to build an intricate system of collisions, overlappings, and movements. It is a way of staying within the complexity permeating our lives. And as life continuously changes, my sound fragments transform, adapting to new contexts, needs, and listeners’ sensitivities. Sounds, like cells, exist as a biological process. We exist as a process. We are asked to stay within this mysterious journey.

Created, recorded and recomposed between 201? and 2022 by Fabio Perletta. 
Design and Artwork by Yorgos Vourlidas.

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