The album Ferrum by Electric Indigo consists of multiple recordings of mineralic metals that play a huge part in the rich overtones and vibrant frequency range. Sussane talks about how the use of metal can range from very ‘fine and delicate’ to ‘super heavy and harsh’ and how the range of characteristics is fascinating. Indigo also talks about the idea of ‘restriction’ and how artistically helped her to make creative decisions using the metal as a very restrictive source material and a defined starting point as a way to increase productivity.
I really like the idea of using a non-typical object to create pieces, as well as this idea of artistic restriction – keeping within a certain boundaries you set for yourself in order to produce a unique outcome. Upon further research I found that the idea of artistic limitation was a widely used idea. At a 2013 Ted Conference artist Phil Hansen made several remarks concerning the value of limitations, among them that “We need to first be limited in order to become limitless,”.
It is also seen in the works of Igor Stravinsky who used creative limitation with time signatures, by restricting himself from using any in his composition ‘the rite of spring’. I feel as if by restricting herself Indigo created a brilliant wave of focus that allowed for the subject of her work to really shine through.
I find this incredibly inspiring especially under the current climate with covid-19 having restricted so many artists from being creatively free. The use of the metal also links to the stone experiment in which one uses a pebble and hits it around different objects to see how it interacts with ones surrounding in terms of sound. After a while one realises that the same materials have a lot in common in the way they sound, but their size and form also makes a large difference.
Response Piece:
In response to exploring Electric Indigo I experimented with the use of metallic recordings and paired them with synthesis to really just see what the outcome would be which I think is incredibly important when coming into contact with something that you are unfamiliar with – in this case the amalgamation of synthesis and a very enigmatic metallic “reverby” recording was very alien to me – i don’t think i have had to(or voluntarily) ever mixed these two types of sounds together. The metallic recording is off me using a contact microphone and attaching it to a metal corrugated surface and scraping my foot across it to create the reverberation. I paired this with a synth from Kontakt and played it over the recording aiming to create some sort of coercion.