Eto Ami

The duo of Dean King and Tomas Phillips came together as Eto Ami in 2000 with the mere intention of exploring a shared aesthetic. This partnership soon developed a trajectory of its own, however, compelling us to push the compositional process towards further levels of refinement and performative dexterity. What this continues to mean for us is the achievement of a balance between digital and non-digital sound and a functional recognition of their differences in terms of utility and signification. Whilst computer technology remains central to our work, we make an effort to locate composition within a space of physicality, a space in which the composing subject(s) is allowed to "become," in the language of Deleuze, alongside the relative self-sufficiency of software. Hence our use of acoustic instrumentation and field recordings gathered on the periphery of laptops. By extension, we seek to foreground the act of listening (as composers and audience alike) in the slowly evolving tradition of microsound, without precluding the possibility of active and engaged harmony.


August 2001	July 2002	January 2003