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Sleep Study 1: Alpha Expansion

by Timm Mason

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Alpha Expansion 23:25
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Originally released as a split cassette with Cathartech by Masters Chemical Society. [MCS110]

Notes on Alpha Expansion

Neurologist Marcus E. Raichle coined the term Default Mode in 2001 to describe the state of a brain that is "awake but resting". Using fMRI and PET brain imaging technologies, Raichle & others identified a network of brain regions that are active when an individual is not focusing on external stimuli. Collectively they are referred to as the Default Mode Network (DMN), and they include the precuneus and neighboring posterior cingulate cortices, the medial prefrontal cortices, and the temporo-parietal junction, bilaterally. The DMN can be contrasted with the Task-Positive Network (TPN) which is active when an individual engages in goal-oriented activity. The DMN is therefore associated with daydreaming (see Mason, Norton et al 'Wandering Minds' 2007), autobiographical memory (see Buckner, Andrews-Hanna & Schacter 'The Brain's Default Network' 2008) and creativity (see Takeuchi, Taki et al 'Failing to Deactivate' 2011). It is the substrate of introspection, intimately linked to self-consciousness.

In 2011, a group of researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich (Sämann, Wehrle, Hoehn et al) published 'Development of the Brain’s Default Mode Network from Wakefulness to Slow Wave
Sleep'. It documented their study of the DMN in individuals as they passed from wakefulness through various non-REM sleep states. Their study indicates that the DMN remains intact even into the deepest stage of sleep. "However, we noted changes of the total DMN strength between wakefulness and sleep, changing focal contributions of defined areas to the DMN strength and altered internode synchronization." Of this synchronization, "With fading of consciousness during sleep, this cortical synchronicity retreats." Mental processes do not cease even during deep (slow-wave) sleep, but they decrease. Components of the DMN decouple and the TPN decorrelates from the DMN.

Alpha Expansion is an aural representation of this winding-down of mentation as the mind passes from consciousness through the early stages of sleep. The structure can be visualized as a squared spiral - an image I recovered from a hypnagogic state. The cycling of sonic events undergoes a gradual dilation, mimicking the desynchronization occurring in the mind. This allows sounds to appear in greater duration and detail, while the relationship between the events becomes increasingly difficult to discern. The piece aims to prolong the earliest stages of sleep.

Alpha Expansion was realized on an analog modular synthesizer that includes circuit designs by John Blacet, Grant Richter, Ken Stone, Tom Oberheim and Serge Tcherepnin. It was recorded directly to disk as I slept, with no subsequent mixing or edits. I patch-programmed the piece over a period of 10 nights, refining it by listening in various stages of wakefulness. I considered it finished when it seemed to mirror my own experience of losing consciousness. I hope that it will resonate with others as well. I recommend playing it at a moderate volume as you lay down to sleep.

-Timm Mason

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released January 1, 2014

mastered by James Plotkin

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Timm Mason New Mexico

Timm Mason is an American artist and producer best known for his analogue and digital synthesizer programming. He has worked on recordings by Wolves in the Throne Room, Eyvind Kang & Jessika Kenney, Akron/Family, Randall Dunn, and more. He contributed to Jóhann Jóhannsson's score for the film Mandy (2018) starring Nicholas Cage and Andrea Riseborough. ... more

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