In Elements the staccato sound acts on the image and its relief, created by a synthesizer. The sequences show the transformations of an image similar to rope arranged in parallel lines gri pped by Bits. Weaving, walls, bark with relief effects are evoked by close ups of black and white lines.

Gary Hill introduces voice-off into a tape for the first time. The words of the text are related to the four elements (air, water, earth and fire), but they are only occasionally intelligible because a technical process jostles and deforms the syllables. The sound is produced by staccato movement within the thickness of the matter suggested, thus creating an illusion of layers that are made and unmade, parallel to the renewal of patterns and textures.

The works of Gary Hill in which the image is structured by sound elaborate a vocabulary whose wealth of pictures and sound is created by the different vocal and instrumental forms used: symmetry of the text and the evolution in space of the dual image in Equal Time, the song and fragmentation of the image by framing in Tale Enclosure, the evolution by doubling up of text and image in Black / White / Text, as well as the increasing complexity of the sequence s in Sums and Differences generated by rhythmic variations of the musical composition.

Thérèse Beyler