Gestaltzerfall

Gestaltzerfall describes a psychological phenomenon where prolonged focus on a complex shape or pattern causes the mind to deconstruct it into smaller parts. The once-familiar image becomes strange and unrecognizable, reframed into something entirely new. This piece explores that process and translates it into sound: a single melody based on a funk groove is repeated, stretched, and scrambled until it forms something unique.

Rhythmically, the music behaves like a Moiré pattern shifting over time—phasing between tightly locked, grid-like precision and a diffuse cloud of sound, as earlier motifs dissolve and re-form in altered ways. Live electronics shape these transformations, using automated parameters of delay and reverb to blur the rhythmic grid and transition between the structured and amorphous sections. Ring modulation further alters the timbre, deepening the sense of disorientation and transformation that lies at the heart of this work.