Paramnesia

Paramnesia is a stereo acousmatic work composed in 2009.

The word 'paramnesia' derives from the Greek 'para' and 'mneme' that mean 'near' and 'memory'. It is a condition that causes confusion between reality and fantasy, resulting in distorted memory. Patients fabricate imaginary events to compensate for loss of memory, and they also experience déjà vu.

Paramnesia consists of two connected movements ('Promenade' and 'Repose') that represent daytime and night respectively. It explores timescales based on connotational chains, and the relation of stimulus complexity to temporal judgements. Additional forces occur in the temporal syntax, an interplay among durations, rhythms, tempi, and changes in pitch contours and dynamics. Both movements explore disturbance of chronological order; passages or sounds are repeated, disguised in different forms (feelings of déjà vu). The time throughout the piece is non-linear, in the sense that a story does not unfold, apart from the distinction between day and night. Events from recordings are taken out of their original context and re-assembled.

The first movement is based on a recording made in the promenade of Alghero in Sardinia, it has been commissioned by the research unit CRiSAP and makes use of the Déjà Vu software program developed by their research team. Paramnesia was shortlisted at the Concours Internationaux 2009 (Musiques Electroacoustiques et Arts Electroniques) in Bourges, France, and was selected for performances worldwide. The composition was also chosen for the ICMC 2010 CD, published by the International Computer Music Association.