Radio Papesse

Dust-Hum (2004) is an all-vocal track consisting of three sections.

The piece draws much from granular synthesis, in particular Derek Piotr tried to reflect an impression of dust or sand, as the title suggests.

The first section of granular synthesis involved running my voice through a steep gate, and arranging the results. In the middle section, the grains were arranged via cut and paste. The last section involved use of a filter and delay.

The main vocal line that runs throughout was inspired by pieces from the record Songs from the Hill by Meredith Monk. That record saw her attempt to emulate the landscape of the desert; she sat out in the New Mexico sun and let melodies and phrases come to her, a process I can relate to as much of my inspiration comes from being in nature.  [Derek Piotr]

Derek Piotr is a Poland-born sound artist based currently in New England whose work focuses mainly on the voice. He has been intern to Meredith Monk; he collaborated with AGF and Richard Chartier; and had works featured on ResonanceFM.