Aspects of Memory is the first meeting between Lawrence Casserley (signal-processing instrument) and Emil Karlsen (percussion). Casserley has devoted his professional career to the creation and performance of real-time electroacoustic music, culminating in the development of his own unique device—The Signal Processing Instrument. This instrument allows him to use physical gestures to control the processing and to direct the morphology of the sounds.
Casserley writes: “A key element of the Signal Processing Instrument is the manipulation of musical time, and the Signal Processing Instrument might be likened to a kind of musical time machine. Time is at the core of our understanding of the world; and memory is at the core of our understanding of time. Both are fundamental to our perception of music. What happens to this understanding when “artificial memory” interferes with our perceptions?”
Casserley and Karlsen both have a history with Bead. Casserley released Garuda with Philipp Wachsmann in 2012, while Karlsen has been involved in a range of collaborations with Wachsmann, John Butcher, and Mark Sanders since joining the label's administration more than five years ago.