A Mechanics of Almost — Ömer Kurtuluş

A Mechanics of Almost is a cycle of seven fixed-media electroacoustic works. Each piece takes one source instrument and follows its mechanism — a membrane, a reed, a bowed surface, a string under tension — to the point where the mechanism itself is almost gone, and what remains is the residue of a physical gesture.

The seven works are Anaculaton, Afterglare, Intergrain, Aerolith, Craquelure, Endobody and Remanence.

Released on Bandcamp.

Works in this album

07

01 Electroacoustic Anaculaton Timpani reduced to impact → membrane → resonance → decay, then interfered with: attacks activate virtual resonating bodies beyond the instrument's scale, alongside wind, tunnels, machinery and distant environmental resonance.

02 Electroacoustic Afterglare The zurna's penetrating upper spectrum treated as a physical condition: sustained tones extended, upper partials exposed and separated until the instrument's apparent singularity fragments.

03 Electroacoustic Intergrain A continuous scraping gesture examined at a much smaller scale — a pick's ridge-by-ridge contact across a string, set against the güiro's related structure at another physical scale.

04 Electroacoustic Aerolith An air-column instrument beside a resonating metal surface: bass-clarinet breath and multiphonics exchanged with a bowed cymbal's slowly transforming partials.

05 Electroacoustic Craquelure Two forms of stored energy — harp-string tension and ceramic brittleness — brought to a region where their behaviours become interchangeable.

06 Electroacoustic Endobody The body as an arrangement of internal spaces: vocal cavities and a bass drum's enclosed volume, working from their structural similarity.

07 Electroacoustic Remanence What remains after a sound's apparent cause disappears: prepared-piano strings, muted attacks and soundboard resonance, with springs holding excitation that re-emerges later.