Yann Novak // The Voice of Theseus CD

Yann Novak, an ambient artist from Los Angeles, USA, released this CD in May 2023 from the experimental label Room5 in Brisbane, Australia.

Contains 9 songs from ambient drone to ambient techno. 

The following is a commentary by the writer himself.

"The legend of Theseus, which appears in Greek mythology, describes how the founder king of ancient Athens rescued the city's children from the Minotaur, King Minos, on the island of Crete. The people sailed Theseus' ship from Athens to Delos and began a pilgrimage to honor his victory.In this tradition a philosophical paradox about historical ships was raised: Ships were repaired little by little. , was no longer made up of the original parts, but at what point did the ship cease to be considered the same entity?

In recent years, I have been interested in exploring the differences in perception that I experience.Perceptual differences like partial color blindness and dyslexia have been with me my whole life, but tinnitus from deafness is a relatively new shift in how I experience the world.These sensory challenges have shaped my artistic practice.It creates what I call perceptual anxiety, anxiety about how accurately you discern the world around you.

The Voice of Theseus is an attempt to explore the obstacles I face in processing external sensory information.If I'm bad at perceiving reds and greens, if I'm bad at hearing certain frequencies, if I don't interpret written language in a standard way, I don't know what other people are saying. How faithfully can we experience reality in the way we experience it?The album asks listeners how their own unique means of perception and interpretation differ from those of others.

For The Voice of Theseus, I enlisted two of my favorite vocalists to help me with this experiment.Dorian Wood and G. Brenner recorded vocals for me to control throughout the album.If their original voice is Theseus' ship, the changes I make to their voices are like the Athenians replacing parts of the original ship.And how far can these vocals be pushed while preserving the identity of the vocalist?Where is the gap between the original material and what is made from it?

The myth of the Ship of Theseus played with me the nuances of how reality can be observed, interpreted, and altered in a myriad of ways.However, due to my internal circumstances, the perceptual anxiety remains.Just as the nature of an object or moment is flexible, so is imprecision.There is no real way of knowing how far apart my observation experience is from that of others, nor is there a clear limit to how many fragments of our shared reality can change before they cease to exist. "

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CD in matte laminate sleeve.

Tracklist:

1. A Monument to Oblivion 
2. Reflex Point                                                                            
3. Traversing the Substrate    
4. Interlude: The Translator 
5. Super Coherent Light                                          
6. Patterned Behavior                                          
7. The Inevitability of Failure 
8. Seeing Light Without Knowing Darkness 
9. We Went out, Not with a Whimper, but a Whisper…

Artist statement by Yann Novak:

"In Greek mythology, the legend of Theseus describes how the king-founder of ancient Athens rescues the children of his city from King Minos' minotaur on the island of Crete. In commemoration, the Athenians began a pilgrimage to honor his victory, taking the ship of Theseus and sailing it from Athens to Delos. It was with this tradition that a philosophical paradox about the historic ship was raised: As the ship was repaired, piece by piece, until it was no longer composed of any original parts, at what point could the ship no longer be considered the same entity?

In recent years, I've become interested in exploring the perceptual differences I experience. While some of these differences—partial color blindness and dyslexia—have been with me my entire life, tinnitus caused by hearing damage is a relatively new change to how I experience the world.

The Voice of Theseus is my attempt to explore the obstacles I face in processing external sensory information. perceiving reds and greens, if I have trouble hearing certain frequencies, if I don't interpret written language in a standard way, how closely can I experience reality in the way that others experience it? means of perception and interpretation might differ from that of others.

For The Voice of Theseus, I asked two of my favorite vocalists to assist with this experiment. Both Dorian Wood and G.Brenner recorded vocals for me to manipulate throughout the album. voices are like the Athenians replacing each of the original vessel's pieces. And so, how far can these vocals be pushed while still remaining attached to the vocalists' identities? Where lies the separation between the source materials and the objects they're used to create ?

The myth of Theseus' ship allowed me to tease at the nuances of how reality can be observed, interpreted, and altered in an indeterminate number of ways; it can be dismantled and rebuilt, many times over. limit of how many pieces of our shared reality can be altered—before it stops being just that. "

Artist : Yann Novak

Label: Room40