DUB PLEX | Make Noise

video upload by MAKEN0ISE

"A subterranean Plexiphon patch.

Plus a visual score by Bruce Magill, realized sonically by Norman Freund!

More info about Norman's performance below:

SoundCloud: / landscape-graphic-score
BandCamp: https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/tra...

Description:
Late 2025 Walker Farrell from MakeNoise started an international music challenge for musicians to participate in, submit your own Graphic Score, then at the draw of a hat, you would be assigned someone else's score to interpret and create music from. I am always interested in music challenges and the more off-beat the better.

Late December 2025 names were drawn at random, Walker constructed a collection of MakeNoise modular synthesis cards to generate random numbers to set who gets what score. I was allocated a topographical map from Bruce Magill that contained some text notes and penciled in graphics. Bruce had a musical concept in mind for this score but did say "Notes for this graphic score are only a suggestion. You can disregard them and interpret this score in any way you like, if you wish. ... Don't overthink." So I did have free reign to interpret the score as I wished, so I could let my imagination run wild. In my younger years I did a lot of wilderness hiking so was and still am, quite familiar with topographic maps, so for me this was the perfect score, something I could relate to and understood. As a side note, there is no right answer for interpreting a graphic score, so understanding is not an essential ingredient, however a vivid imagination is. It is a bit like laying on the grass and looking up at the clouds -- what do you see beyond back scattered light from suspended vapours in the sky.

On the 8-Jan-2026 my copy of the score arrived and straight away I switched on my hardware synthesisers, a Soma Lyra 8, Soma Enner and Soma COSMOS and began to musically interpret the score. I pencilled in my own notes of musical elements and instrument settings. Time to ponder some more and complete some other projects I was working on at the time. I had till end of Feb 2026 to complete this, but since it was all fresh in my mind I was keen to have another session and press the record button.

On the afternoon of the 14-Jan-2026 I switched on my digital four track recording system, ready to record some hardware synthesiser action on my Soma Lyra 8, Soma Enner and Soma COSMOS. If I had some MakeNoise hardware modular synthesisers, I would have used them, sorry Walker, I don't have any as yet.

During these recording sessions, I was continually looking down at the score to derive inspiration from it. Not a literal reading of instructions like from a traditional staff score, following the dots obediently, rather a live impression.

The first four tracks were performed on the Soma Lyra 8. Tracks 1 and 2 were some rhythmic ideas following two circles on the score, one with five notches, the other with six notches. The score included an empty music five line music staff, for this I had in mind a harmony section. I played around with all eight of the frequency dials on the Lyra 8 until I had some thing that I thought suited. This formed the main tuning basis. An ebbed and flow track was recorded. The graphic score included what I saw as a tidal region of water and sand denoted by a speckling of dots -- this I took as a general white noise and rumble, so this formed the next track. There were several clusters of housing high up in the hills of the map with roads winding down to the waters edge much lower, for this the Enner was played starting with a high frequency pitch, then slowly dropping both the pitch and volume, until the piece ends. In the end, all that is heard is the quite rumble and ripple at the waters edge.

http://www.makenoisemusic.com