Through music’s interaction with the environment, and thanks to its permanent availability, a combinative process can be derived to expose its multiple, even infinite, facets (Schöffer 1985: 60)

Middleton’s theory of articulation is concerned with how each object, reflection of, or copy of, articulates itself to the other in the formation of the whole. Articulation is the process in which a particular group adopt cultural practices for their own use; ‘they operate by combining existing elements into new patterns or by attaching new connotations to them’ (Middleton 1990:9). For instance, in [09_Clock_Face_Grain_Fragments], the relationship to form has been altered during articulation to 10_Rattle_Pitch_Destruction [reference figure.02], resulting in a new tonal quality. This process can also be viewed in Feld’s work on coastal textures in Accra [see Structuring the Soundscape]. During sublation[1] there is no known order of reason as sound adopts a rhizomatic[2] approach to integrations in the structure of the composition. Luper describes how a copy herein previously produced and augmented, ‘constructs and integrates itself with structures that promote its longevity and copying process’, these are known as replicator bodies [Appendix I]. It is the collusion with other artefacts that creates these bodies, thoroughly masking the absence of the source reality or memorial material. These structures are polyvalent in the context of revealing multiple facets and rely on articulated relationships between sonic artefacts, facilitated by the movements enacted in the imaginary landscape that follow both theoretical direction and emotional memorial awareness. As Verstraete explains, ‘the metamedial awareness feeds back to an “interfacing” property of the imagination that would secure discursive coherence (Verstraete 2008: 256).

While the previous stages are focused on the rupture and decontextualistion of the memory of source characteristics, the assimilation of materials in this stage is concerned with the transformation to deathscape, achieving coherence through articulation to related components in the frame of composition. This depth of mediation in relation to articulation is best achieved through inactive [non-real-time] composition, as Wishart explains; ‘studio composition can deal with the uniqueness of sonic events and with the conjuring of alternative or imaginary sonic landscapes outside the theatre of musical performance itself’ (Wishart 1994: 8). This assemblage of components produces a decontextualisation of materials by their negation in the body of the soundscape, transforming it to deathscape by nullifying the memorial symbolism of sonic materials in the interior of the composition. As Lacan puts it, the symbol ‘manifests itself first of all as the murder of the thing’ (Lacan 2001: 39).

During the assimilation of materials, the composition then transgresses a typical order of death discourse, by utilising; for example, parameter control of the grainsize and grainlength in [09_Clock_Face_Grain_Fragments]. This is then articulated to [10_Rattle_Pitch_Destruction] to underpin the progression of assimilation [figure.03], introducing an echo to this artefact in response. The next stage is the interruption of the integrity of this antiphonic articulation by overlapping. In this sense, three frames of conceptual ritual drawn from the splicing of the death rattle creates [11_Rattle_Reverse_Texture] through processing [figure.02] are layered over each other in an overarching interaction [see figure.03]. Progressing from the previous stage the same concept is applied in an assemblage format for a multiplicity of components to resolve and highlight ruptures present in the previous stage, as a dynamic that is considered transgressive of the order of discourse is ‘the disruption of the integrity of antiphonic reciprocity through the competitive overlapping of mourning performances’ (Seremetakis 1991: 112).

It is the sublimation at this stage that primarily facilitates the integration of memorial material that contributes the majority of reflections on death. The sequential links that are the focus of this stage fuse ruptures, mapping the collective path through sonic representation as acoustic referents simulate the deathscape. This logic of simulation can be conceptualised by its processual nature, captured temporarily in a musical event by framing devices in compositional movement. In this sense, waves crashing [12_Waves_Rumble_Grain_Unison] are drawn in at this stage, signifying the rupture of this static memory by sublimation, into something processual and fluid. ‘We require a visible past, a visible continuum, a visible myth of origin, which reassures us about our end’ (Baudrillard 1994: 10). Thus, the stages of simulation portrayed so far must also be decontextualised in space, unveiling its mediations in transference to pure simulacrum; by fluxing states by spatialisation in forming the processual continuum. As Middleton states, ‘all musical events relate forward (through expectation and implication) and back (through memory), and their function and meaning change as the processual dynamic unfolds’ (Middleton 1990: 219).

[1] Method of eliminating the visibility of the dialectic process between components present in previous stages but ‘preserve as a partial element in a synthesis’.

[2] In context of the deathscape’s affordance for multiple points of interpretation with both vertical and linear connections [see figure.03].