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Shane Byrne - IamAtEase

from Ö by V/A: Various Artists

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Shane Byrne

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from Ö, released July 1, 2017
IamAtEase is the second electroacoustic piece I have composed as part of a series of
compositions under theme of Disintegrating Consciousness. It was inspired by the
experiments conducted by Dr Ewen Cameron in the mid 20th century.
Cameron was the head of both the American and Canadian Psychiatric Association and
his theory of psychic driving, hypothesised that mental conditions such as schizophrenia,
anxiety and depression were as a result of forgotten or suppressed memories. He was
given funding through the CIA to conduct experiments in Montreal between 1957 and
1964. His experiments were an attempt to remove these suppressed memories from his
patients completely. By erasing their memories, or “de-patterning the subjects”, Cameron
felt that he could erase their past and therefore begin constructing a new, psychologically
healthy individual.
Using a mixture of psychoactive and paralytic drugs, as well as electroconvulsive therapy,
he would induce subjects into comas that often lasted for weeks. These cruel attempts at
brainwashing led to patients, who initially may have had only minor psychological
conditions, to experience severe memory loss. This amnesia included forgetting their
identity, forgetting who their parents were, and forgetting how to form simple sentences.
During the time that the patients were induced into comas, Cameron would play loops of
noise and repetitive phrases from tape machines placed under the patient’s pillows in an
effort to reprogram their brains in, what he deemed, a more positive way.
Needless to say, these experiments did not yield the results that Cameron had expected
and in fact they were all complete failures. The only thing that he accomplished during this
entire time was to brutally torture all of the people under his care. All the subjects of these
experiments experienced severe memory loss and almost none had any recollection of
their time spent in the hospital whatsoever. The only thing that all the patients could
remember from the horrific experience was one of the phrases that Cameron played under
their pillows on repeat; I am at ease with myself.
This phrase, recited once, is the sole source of sonic material in this composition. The
phrase is broken down into individual particles through a mixture of spectral processing
and granular techniques, in order to create a disintegrated representation of the original
words.

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{AN} Eel Toronto, Ontario

(AN) EeL is all over the map. An Experimental Vocalist & Full Bodies Inhabitant of this Colorful universe. He Make Ood Thiings, You Knoww.w>....

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