I got sort of obsessed with Bill Gates during the height of the coronavirus lockdown. I found myself unconsciously chanting "Bill Gates, Bill Gates, Bill Gates" under my breath from time to time. Like a weird mantra.
To exorcise that particular demon, I decided to make a tape loop composition. I've used Ableton Live effects in the past to approximate the tape phasing techniques pioneered by composers Terry Riley and Steve Reich, among others.
In my own compositions, I often hear new words and phrases emerge from my own tape-phased vocal - and what I hear is often eerily resonant with the original lyric. As if a deeper layer of meaning - or a commentary on what I think my words mean - exists beneath the surface.
Or maybe it's just my subconscious mind projecting meaning onto an abstract sonic canvas. Who knows?
Give this one a listen and let me know what you hear.
Also, I watched Who Is Bill Gates? after I recorded and looped the phrases in the video. I really didn't know much about him, other than that he kept popping up in the news pushing vaccines and making ominous predictions about the coronavirus.
Here's a link to Steve Reich's famous "Come Out" - a piece Reich created from the testimony of a young man in Harlem beaten by police in 1964.