Beautiful Cyborg 2 - Tetsuo - 7' 55" stereo mix - © 2002

Background

Conceptually devised by Philip Brophy, Beautiful Cyborg 2 continues the Beautiful Cyborg project, with 6 new portraits, again edited by Cassandra Tytler. The score this time is a solo work by Philip Brophy. It was premiered at Japanime 02 in Sydney, 2002, at the Dendy Circular Quay Cinema, using the same 4-channel surround sound concept as in the first Beautiful Cyborg.

Credits

Composition, production & mix - Philip Brophy
Sound effects recording - Philip Brophy & Jennifer Sochackyj
Editing - Cassandra Tytler
CD mastering - Byron Scullin
Special thanks: Deb Shapiro (Japanime); Paul Wiegard & Tim Anderson (Madman Entertainment)

2008

CD released on Sound Punch Records

2007

The Bakery, Perth (as part of TOTALLY HUGE NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL)

2006

The Powerhouse, Brisbane

2004

Australian National Gallery, Canberra

2003

ADELAIDE INTERNATIONAL FIM FESTIVAL

2002

Dendy Quay Cinema, Sydney (as part of JAPANIME)

Overview

Beautiful Cyborg 2 celebrates the visual themes typical of hard SF and cyberpunk anime in which Japan excels: sensuous metals; delicate super-conductors; contemplative gears; penile foreheads; delicious motor mechanics; dimensional speed; transfigured space; sculptured visages. To this is added a heady mix of musical motifs, textural sheets, pulsating rhythms and unearthly sounds which float throughout the auditorium in a hovering, shimmering, soaring and bombastic quadraphonic soundfield playback.

More than a techno-fest with a pretty rush of images of aliens, cyborgs, robots, androids, re-designed humans and hi-tech mechanica, Beautiful Cyborg 2 goes to the core of Japanese audiovision to uncover what Philip has noted is "the psycho-acoustic world turned inside-out" (Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Tyranny of the English Voice in Anime Real Time No.32, 1999). The newly imagined and realized music of Beautiful Cyborg 2 floats asynchronously, following the emotional compaction and contradiction which typifies the post-human psyche in Japanese anime. Listen to the erotic synapses firing in their bodies. Hear their engorged metallica hum and breathe. Loose yourself in the gorgeously inside-out world of anime.

Technical

Editing

Beautiful Cyborg 2 features 6 portraits of the following characters:

1. Armitage from Armitage III
2. Sho from The Guyver
3. Subaru from Tokyo Babylon
4. Usagi from Sailor Moon
5. Andromeda from Space Adventure Cobra
6. Tetsuro from Akira

Score production & performance

Beautiful Cyborg 2 involved a more streamlined compositional process than the first Beautiful Cyborg, being a solo work by Philip. The concept behind this version was to generate a series of song-format compositions in contrast to the merged ambient soundscapes of Beautiful Cyborg 1. The result is a series of highly melodic tracks of a clearly plastic electronic bent, with verse/chorus/refrain-style structures and elements being set against the rush of images.

Beautiful Cyborg 2 is performed live on the ASR10 sampler in accompaniment to a specially-mixed stereo CD. The overlay of live melodic parts coming predominantly from the rear channel outputs of the ASR in time to the stereo CD playing in the front channels creates a 'harmonic surround spatialization' as opposed to the normal textural approaches used for spatialization.