[Excerpt]
The Other is a composition realized in Max and Kyma. There are two distinctive modes intertwined throughout the piece, each mode representing “the other” in relation to the opposing mode.
A slow sustain drone motif begins the piece, and is then followed by a distinctive high pitch that fractures this drone motion. Consequently, a second theme—the other—emerges, bringing about the other sound world. These two themes play against each other, at times in conflict (dissonance) and at times in conciliation (consonance). Toward the middle of the piece a two-second silence presents the first climax, leading to a massive sound collage. A synthesized organ-like sound gradually softens the tension and returns the piece to the initial motif.
The center idea if this composition is “Who, exactly, is ‘the other’?” As an individual one usually refers to anyone who is not one’s self as “the other”. The other could be a neighbor, a brother, a foreigner, or a creature from another planet. However, it might also be yourself. And so I ask, who exactly is “the other”?
The other is, the other person, whose face takes me out of myself.
—Emmanuel Levinas