From Surgipelago, the Beach Surgery encyclopedia

Selector

A radio play by C. W. Smith, included in the omnibus Pastoral Scanlines. Selector engages with the polyacoustic principles that structure Smith's entire oeuvre—the insight that "rhythm was invented to mimic the beating of our mother's heart, and melody conjured to imitate the sound of our mother calling our name."^[1] The work is constructed as a sonic meditation rather than a narrative arc; at its culmination, the traditional cello is supplanted by the heartbeat—the human pulse as instrument—and the piece ends with a stark invocation: ': “Peter. / Mother.”'

This conclusion suggests an elegy or memorial, a return to the primal acoustic of loss and maternal presence folded into rhythm. Selector exemplifies Smith's treatment of the sound as a vehicle for temporal recursion and memory; it stands alongside related sonic works in the archive. Leif and Katita do not appear. The play is notable for prioritizing the bodily and acoustic over the narrative, positioning the listener within what Smith elsewhere calls the "peopleless gaps" of language and music.

See also

• C. W. Smith
• Pastoral Scanlines
• Polyacoustic
• Sound of the earth rubbing against space
• Empty World Meditations

References

1. ↑ Cross-Oeuvre Concept Concordance, section 10.