Composer: Richard Brice
As far as I know, there exists no strong intellectual link between the minimalist movement and the hard-boiled, pulp novels and detective films of the nineteen-thirties and forties. Perhaps it is their common, unflinching lack of emotion - or simply their distinctive Americanism -which ties them so closely together in my own mind. Whatever the reason, I've taken this opportunity to re-write history and re-score some of my favourite moments from a few classic "Noir" films.
Technically, the music incorporates the discrete phasing technique which Steve Reich introduced in Clapping Music in 1972. All four instrumental parts are derived from the set of patterns played by piano 1. Piano 2 copies these patterns but drops on quaver-beat every 30 quavers, the flute drops a quaver every 20 quavers and the marimba drops a quaver every 9 quavers. The process is extended to incorporate several "tacit" bars before any instrument starts. In other words, the phasing has "already begun" before the music starts. Over the instruments are superimposed "sound-bites" taken from the films of books by Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. These, monaural, sound sources are treated by means of a spatial sound processor to appear outside of the area bounded by the loudspeakers and even behind the listening position - without the use of extra loudspeakers.
The title is taken from one a jotting in one of Chandler's note-books, "I called out and no-one answered, not even a stand-in for an echo."