This work deals with aspects of depersonalisation and detachment as a side effect of DBS surgery. DBS surgery, which stands for Deep Brain Stimulation is a neurosurgical procedure that uses implanted electrodes and electrical stimulation to treat movement disorders associated with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and other neurological conditions. Electrical stimulation is applied as a series of pulses via an implanted electrode, in either the globus pallidus internus or the subthalamic nucleus. These are controlled by a device called a neurostimulator placed under the outer layers of skin, under the collarbone or in the chest or abdomen, which is then controlled by a remote device or an app on a mobile device. Patients can switch the stimulator on and off and control the amplitude of the oscillations, to relieve symptoms of PD. The procedure is in general very successful in alleviating the debilitating symptoms of PD, but there are issues of side-effects that include feelings of depersonalisation, self-estrangement and identity crisis. This is caused by the drastic personality changes perceived when switching the simulator on and off.
Here you can read more about these issues.
The composition focuses on aspects of loss of identity. Live video and electronics are used to fracture and multiply the ongoing performance of the solo bass clarinet player. A gradual transformation takes place of the player throughout the 45 minutes of the piece that focus on both the sound and the physical aspects of the instrument.
Yannis Kyriakides was born in Limassol, Cyprus in 1969, emigrated to Britain in 1975 and has been living in the Netherlands since 1992. He studied musicology at York University, and later composition with Louis Andriessen and Dick Raaijmakers.
As a composer and sound artist he looks for ways of creating new forms and hybrids of media that problematize the act of listening. The question as to what music is actually communicating is a recurring theme in his work and he is often drawn to the relation between perception, emotion and language and how that defines our experience of sound. In the last years his work has been exploring different relations between words and music, both in concert compositions and installations through the use of systems of encoding information into sound, synthesizing voices and projecting text to music. The latter work has led to about 20 music text films that play on the idea of imagined or inner voice.
Yannis has written over a hundred compositions, comprising mostly of music theatre, multimedia and electroacoustic works for chamber groups and large ensembles. His work has been performed worldwide at many of the prominent music festivals, and by many leading contemporary music ensembles. He is a founding member of the ensemble MAZE, and teaches composition at the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague.