David Braden, Asemic Fragments

 

David Braden, Asemic Fragments
 
1. [Transcription No. 1] 4.02
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2. [First Trace] 1.11
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3. [Transcription No. 2] 2.40
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4. [Inscription No. 1]
Click on Link to Listen 0.43
 
5. [Transcription No. 3]
Click on Link to Listen 3.30
 
6. [Second Trace]   
Click on Link to Listen 0.25
 

The Complete Set of Asemic Fragments  
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Asemic Fragments is an excavation of the space between the phonological artifacts of language, prosody, and meaning to unearth a new multivalent ur-grammar, fully open to subjective interpretation.  
 
The massive texts of Moby Dick and Finnegans Wake were first deconstructed into thousands of sub-word tokens using the Sentencepiece algorithm, effectively erasing their semantic identity while preserving their rhythmic DNA. 
 
These fragments were then "read" back into existence through a series of distinct text-to-speech engines—eSpeak-ng, Coqui— then processed through Abelton Live via Max4 Live.

What remains is a poetic machine "un-writing," where the original texts have been replaced by a consistent, shifting grammar that evoke suggested meanings from a prehistoric digital past into the listener's present.

Released February 22, 2026
Composition and Mastering: David Braden
Source Material: Moby Dick (Herman Melville) & Finnegans Wake (James Joyce)
Deconstruction: Sentencepiece sub-word tokenization
Vocal Synthesis Engines: eSpeak-ng (Transcriptions Nos. 1–14),
Coqui Neural Synthesis (Inscriptions (Nos. 1–5)
and Coqui Neural Syntheis failures (Traces 1 - 7)
Digital Art & Artifact Generation: Gemini / Nano Banana