Listen to the Stock Market with Jace Clayton’s ‘Gbadu and the Moirai Index’

The stock market has been set to music. DJ and composer, Jace Clayton, is changing the way we listen to our environment with an experimental music project called Gbadu and the Moirai Index, which takes influence from the Greek goddesses of fate as well as Gbadu, the dual-gendered West African fate deity. In telling the story of these classic figures, Clayton borrows from what might seem like a strange source: stock charts. Using his own system of algorithms, Clayton captures the peaks and valleys of the stock market and then translates them into vocal melodies, each one embodying a different mythological figure. Rather than clashing, the classicism of his narrative is upheld by the ethereal vocals which capture the contours of the Doric columns and marble edifices lining the Wall Street region. Surely, experimental music has never felt this "capital."

Clayton's stock-to-sound algorithms can be boiled down to one thing: wave-forms, pure and simple (as true for stocks and electromagnetism as it is for sound). It has already been established that there is a fascination with sound that extends well beyond the capabilities of sound. For example, tradition would have it that music is composed for the specific air density of our planet. However, scientists have released several novelty projects called "sounds" of the Sun, and "sounds" of pulsars that suggest sound is merely an aggregate of dynamic processes translated into something we can interpret.

Jace Clayton (who also goes by DJ/rupture) similarly translates the stock market into an audible expression of his saga. Each voice in "Gbadu and Moirai Index" portrays a different stock portfolio to embody their character. In capturing the spaciousness and smoothness of the Doric columns through the voices of these characters, he also brings to light the contrast of NYC's Financial District with its noted reputation as an African burial ground in colonial times---hence the invocation of the feared West African deity. With so many reference points in action, it's easy to think how a project like this could lose sight of itself. Reserve that judgement until you check out this preliminary sketch of the project from over two years ago. It exhibits a stark beauty which, when combined with three years of further development, could prove to be a pivotal work.