Phasing is technique where the same part is played by two musican instruments in at different paces, so that the two parts will shift out of unison creating an assortment of interesting effects.
The pace of the two parts is almost identical so that they do seemingly move easily in and out of unison, and that all the changes happen gradually.
This visual representation is not only hypnotic, but very well demonstrates the concept. The piece of music they’ve used to the first section from Steve Reich’s 1967 piece Piano Phase.
In some cases, especially live performance where gradual separation is extremely difficult, phasing is accomplished by periodically inserting an extra note (or temporarily removing one) into the phrase of one of the two players playing the same repeated phrase, thus shifting the phase by a single beat at a time, rather than gradually.
To find out more about this project or Alex Chen’s other work, head to www.chenalexander.com.
