09/09/2026
Conceived as part of Sinan C. Savaşkan’s epic cycle, Many Stares through Semi-Nocturnal Zeiss-Blink, Eleven Conditions of Responsibility embodies his radical approach to composition, which involves observing a static object from different angles. The object is a quasi-architectural model made up of four circles around a larger one. His new release includes eight movements that belong to three modules of the cycle: MODULE 141 (Movements I and II), MODULE 148 (Movements III, IV and V), and MODULE 11 (Movements VI, VII and VIII).
Form Plan 141 shows how Module 141 is derived from the model observed from a 141° angle. The angle of observation here is not 141° but 140°: a sort of ‘upbeat’ to the main movement, ‘At No 141’. The idea of absurdly elongated anacruses was inspired by Mozart’s use of rhythmic techniques to increase tension; the metrical dissonances create a sense of ‘false’ upbeat and delay the arrival of the actual phrase and metre.
Module 141 is an epiphany about the true state of the world in the 2020s, and Module 148 introduces a state of psychological paralysis. In Form Plan 148, the configuration of the earlier 141° projection is transformed into a new set of circular functions corresponding to a 148° observation of the form plan. The 1+4+1 units now become 1+4+8 (= 13); several five-octave scales and fourth-inversion ninth chords emerge.
Form Plan 11 is about facing ‘the whatness of things’. It is concerned with aesthetic stasis, radiance, renewal, and rebirth – a resolution to the prior themes of epiphany and paralysis. The movement expands the main dissonant dyad of Module 148: the pitches G2 (98 Hz) and F2 (87 Hz); their acoustic resultant, the difference tone of 11 Hz; and further summation tones of higher frequencies. The resulting chords and their ‘acoustically correct’ overtones follow the perimeter of one of the circles of Form Plan 11.
Dive into Savaşkan’s methodology in the extensive booklet of the October 16 new release Eleven Conditions of Resposibility performed by the Octandre Ensemble and conductor Jonathan Hargreaves. Enjoy the first single, "Anacrusis (II)," wherever you listen to music: listn.fm/elevenconditions.
