Recorded July 1988 – September 1989 at Music by design Studios, Seattle
Produced by Jim Papp and Alex Johnson
“Avertive Powers” is music based on the first known translation of electromagnetic data into sound.
The first objective of the project is to de- monstrate, in the form of musical tones, the meditative and contemplative qualities inherent in the fluctua- tions of the earth’s electromagnetic field. The second objective is to illustrate the marriage of art and science as demonstrated, implicitly and explicitly, in earlier ‘societies such as the Mayan culture in Central America. The idea for this music was conceived in response to the specific participation by artists Milo Duke and Ray Pelley in an event which has come to be known as Harmonic Convergence. They travelled to the sacred Zapotec site of Monte Alban in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley during the month of August 1987. Operating on the premise that Mayan and North American Indian prophesies had predicted fluctua- tions in the earth’s electromagnetic field at this time in history, the artists sought confirming scientific evidence.
Using specially designed instrumentation (a flux gate magnetometer and an electric field meter) provided by Harold Fauska, a physicist.and electrical — engineer, readings were taken at the sacred site between the dates of August 3 and August 20, 1987. Upon their return from Mexico, analysis of the data revealed a number of interesting anomalies patterns in the flux measurements taken on days are specifically identified in historical predictions.
Using a system based on the science of Numerology, the collected data was converted into musical tones. Three synthesizer sounds were chosen to represent the three components of the elec- tromagnetic field: North/South (heard as a high frequency tone), East/West (mid-range tone), and Vertical (low tone). Next, in order to produce the individual notes, 10 minute increments were chosen and the corresponding field flux intensity reduced to its digital root. These calculations were done for each of the three components and converted, using a numerological chart, to musical notes. Using a scale of 1:100, 10 minutes became 3 seconds, reducing 35 hours 10 minutes of readings to 21 minutes 16 seconds of music.
Side One of the “Avertive Powers” cassette consists of twelve different pieces of music using the three synthesizer tones described above with additional instrumentation composed and recorded by avariety of musicians. The participating musicians represent many musical styles playing a wide range of acoustical and electronic instruments. In accor- dance with the project’s scientific aims.
Side Two displays the three synthesizer tones “as is” over the same twelve movements.
