Three States of Wax by Juan Parra

t h r e e . s t a t e s . o f . w a x

photo by Seth Josel........

Juan Parra Cancino (guitar, computer, electronics) & Jonathan Impett (trumpet, computer, electronics)

Orpheus Institute, Ghent, Belgium

Three States of Wax

What is the material of improvisation? The title and approach derive from philosopher of science Michel Serres’ investigation of the materials of physics. Developing Decartes’ thought experiment of a piece of wax (always the same, always different), Serres identifies three views: the object as perceived, the object as described in terms of its properties, and the object as an informational nexus that not only embodies the entire history of its own genesis and interaction, but is further transformed in each encounter or interrogation.The latter, he suggests, is the appropriate view in an informational world.

Improvised electro-acoustic music is paradigmatic of contemporary practise in many ways – it raises questions of the nature of material and its representation, of the distribution of authorship and the emergence of form.

In Three States of Wax, information is exchanged, compared and processed in a range of modes. The difference between these modes is the engine of the music – a Lacanian motor of real-symbolic-imaginary. Three States of Wax adds a new layer to those of processed live instruments. The apparent incommensurability of custom individual systems becomes adynamical network; the central ‘difference engine’ becomes an independent voice, using analog sounds to reveal the inner dynamics of the emerging form.

Media Examples

February 29, 2020. New York Electroacoustic Summit. New York, USA

“Sublimation”, from “Time Crystal”, an album of Three States of Wax in collaboration with Chris Chafe.
Album released in Ravello records. More information here.