Written Systems by Alfredo Costa Monteiro

"Written Systems" contains four new sonic poems by Alfredo Costa Monteiro based on speech synthesis, inspired by structural ideas in grammatology and linguistics.

"Real Objects" is based on a sentence that is never heard in its entirety. Its fragments are revealed little by little over repetitions, offering a conceptual deconstruction. The absence of natural language’s continuity leads to an isolation of words from speech, converting them into real sonic objects.

"Inserção" was composed after a visual poem and exposes the inability of a synthetic voice to deal with its complex form. Inserts of empathic sounds and monosyllables emerge from the symthetic reading, communicating a subjective aptitude against an automated interpretation.

A similar process happens in "Phonémologie de O à R" where an english voice reads french sen- tences leading to non words or neologisms to occur that become a linking leitmotif throughoutthepiece.Contrary to the desired effect, however, this complicates the possibilities of communication even more.

Closing the series featured on this album, "Signos Invariables" returns to the principle of repetition. Three words are combined with their sonic variations to create a very short and alliterative phrase. This phrase,oncerevealed,rais- es the question of stability and invariability when the same actions or facts are repeated over and over.

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