I found Madisons lecture extremely inspiring – his performance was absolutely incredible, displaying a real dedication, persistance and knowledge of his craft both an artist and producer. I think those three words really define Madison as an artist. Dedication, hours of practise and creativety, persistance – a perisistance of expression in an environment that is completely against him and complete knowledge of his background and identity.
The idea of rebellion through ‘fabulousness’ and constraints that hold artists like Madison is something i really resonated with. Madison talks about the production of music in an environment that is oppressing you – being a person of colour and/or trans and/or queer in a society in which the difficulty of survival is a very real thing – usually produces a very different outlook thus making the art very different. Madison talked about all the times he was told ‘no’ – having to work double as hard for the same results – making his work that much more powerful.
Madison also mentions the safe space – much like previous lecturers he talks about the dance floor being a place of pure expression and safety, where one can be themselves without any restrictions – being able to express oneself without feeling chained up by societal norms. The dancefloor becoming a haven for the LGBTQ community and their music becoming the portrayal of that.
Ive always been really interested in the amalgamation of visuals and sound ever since my visit to a Lights Show in ___. It incorporated atmospheric sound and visual elements to create environments of beauty and magic that reminded me of the many sound installations the visiting practitioners have introduced to me in previous lectures, except on a much grander scale. You would walk through buildings, pathways and gardens being met with a series of detailed lightworks each with an array of different colours illuminating the nebulous yet lurid night sky. Patterns plastered the walls in intricate formations – it was something out of a novel of magic. Overtaken by the multitude of different colours and arrangements I took a minute to stop and think about how all of this would have been without the lush, grand and enchanting scores in the background playing through speakers camouflaged in the wonderous aesthetic of the park – and the answer was it just wouldn’t be the same. Despite the wonderful sights, without the music the entire experience would have felt somewhat hollow, empty and devoid of any passion or emotion.
This was my first experience with sound that had such a strong visual element separate from anything diegetic. The comparability of each element was that the whole thing would not be the same without the other creating a very immersive experience. I remember how well the music synched with the cascading patterns, making full use of the atmosphere environment and space showing the importance of space in sound and the acoustic environment in which the sound is played.
Upon further research the term acoustic space is an acoustic environment in which sound can be heard by an observer. I thought about how easy it was for me to see such a ‘sound installation’ – and although sound wasn’t the main focus of the entire experience it certainly was a large contributing factor the creativity of it and how the development of such an experience was unique to the development of sound and architecture in the 20th century.
A quote from the book Music, sound and space: a transformation of public and private spaces by Georgina Born references this:
‘the emergence of sound installation art in the second half of the twentieth century reflects fundamental shifts within multiple arenas: conception of space and space- time;… the extension of music and sonic arts into expanded and sculptural and architectural models”
The use of space and environmental visuals placed alongside the sound, allowing the consumer to pass through multiple different sonic environments and spaces was something that I found interesting – the changing of the space through movement and the way in which the sonic environment evolves – specially to shift moods and emotion as the passage continued. The type of dynamism involved in to creating a place where the moods changed so sporadically (as well as the music) all to stay in touch with the atmosphere they were intending to create with all the layers involved is genuinely really interesting to think about.
Fountain Scan (2020) by Robert Henke, Hanover, Germany.
I really admire the level of work and detail that goes into creating the visual elements for the SoundArt. Robert Henke proves that SoundArt isn’t just about the sound. The visuals play a huge roll as well and in the lecture he makes the idea about experimentation and exploration clear – emphasising the point that anything can come out of accidents.
Khyam talks about the boundaries of Western Tuning, creating a software that allows for more possibilities. Khyam also highlights the lack of non-western sound within western culture and curriculum which I think formed the basic idea of the lecture. Khyam puts emphasis on the idea of ‘tuning’ which is something im not too familiar with, so i did some research and found A = 440Hz, which is a standard reference pitch
mentions how it relates to bias, supremacy and exclusion from other musical cultures from the tools used to make music. Khyam talks about subconscious bias that is instilled in the very instrumentation used to create the music – feeling as if using those instruments and softwares was driving him in a creative direction that he didn’t intend to follow originally. I find this idea very interesting – people usually don’t question using certain DAW’s made by certain people and the cultural limitations of those DAWS because of the general availability of them – those are the only ones available for us to use.
equal temperament refers to the western system for dividing the octave into twelve equal steps, which is the default tuning system thats used in all the softwares and hardware synthesisers used today. Popular digital audio workstations like Ableton, FL Studio, Logic, and Cubase were built primarily to facilitate music-making in a Western mode, according to the principles of European classical music. If an artist wants to compose with the common features of music from Africa, Asia, or Latin America, they have to almost fight against the software and rely on complex workarounds and different ideas.
Leimma and Apotome:
Using Leimma was completely new to me, first I had no idea what I was doing, probably needing to do more research on tuning and micro tonalities – however i did appreciate it being something that allows creation of music beyond the norm. New use of experimentation.
When using it we were asked to use measurements from our body and input them into Leimma – i used my fingers, creating a very interesting buzzy tone. I found this was a really unique way to make yourself a part of the creation. Leimma offers an intuitive, tactile introduction for anyone. Even if you know nothing about the musical systems of Indonesia, Japan, or Iran, you can jump in and hear the tonality differences immediately.
For this week, we looked at a number of vocal techniques that could be used. We explored a range of various vocal sounds such as breath as well as more percussive and plosive sounds. We shared examples of vocal production – I chose the above as I felt like it was one of the best representations of i could find at the time.
•’ Exploring your own voice. Legato sounds. Staccato sounds. Throat. Nasal. This could be a breathe sound:
exploring the various vocal artists was both unusual as well as interesting. I was experienced in beatboxing beforehand so a lot of the vocal techniques were very familiar to me, especially the more percussive ones. I’m sure I will use it in my final piece as I want to make sure I made use of the voice effectively although at this point I don’t really know the context behind the piece or where my idea will stem from.
Record these sounds. We will edit and work with them later.
•Moving the voice into different spaces- large and small. Where do you feel lost comfortable? Where do you hear bass frequencies enhanced, and where do you hear high ones? Record these sounds.
•Sounds into a vessel e.g. mug, saucepan Record these sounds. We will edit and work with them later. •Repeat the exercises for sounds you find more challenging?
For my draft piece i recorded some pens shaking around in a pencil case, using it as percussion, displaying use of music concrete.
Defforest Brown Jr’s art and expression is presented as the amalgamation of years of living in a systemically capitalist, racist and power hungry America.
In the piece Amerikkkas Bay, Brown uses a very minimal, dark undertone to enhance vocals talking about police brutality and violence. A stinging prose of injustice – forming the very pillars of Dafforests music. Browns music seems to emit the dark struggle of trying to live in a society and urban environment so unfamiliar as a person of colour. There is a clear expression of rhythm and soul as a presentation of of generational trauma, cutting past constructed frameworks of Western music and thoughts and ideologies.
The systematic displacement of Black communities mixed with a linear consideration of Black music (from blues to rock to jazz to soul to funk to techno) displays communication emerging from a people trying to learn to speak the way they would like to whilst also being set within restrictive societal dimensions .
the idea of people of colour engaging with White technologies powered by broken European ideologies shows strongly throughout. Brown makes sure to emphasise the idea of “soul” for African Americans extends beyond genre classification and encapsulates a continuous situation of being considered categorically inhuman in the eyes of American governing bodies, people and organisations. The agonisingly rough portrayal of discrimination in all its glory.
Techno and its qualities of soul come from a long history of adaptation to a society designed to systematically exploit and oppress and sabotage people of colour and lives. Browns music steps beyond the capitalistic mentality and notions of a corrupt America to present Black techno in a very true form.
A starting listening exercise that helped me think about environmental sound leading to inspiration for my piece. It also helped me think about sounds I wouldn’t usually think about using, such as the string based production on my main piece. We also did a task where we thought about the first things that came to our mind and wrote a narrative based upon the images we first thought off – this shaped the process of making ‘black’ by making me really think about the colour and relate it to other inspirations to create a sonic representation.
Before making the piece i created a mind-map which helped arrange and convey my thoughts. I tried to find similar points that found their way to each other – one was ‘big’ helping me see that it was a description i wanted to convey heavily in my piece. I thought that something orchestral would allow me to portray that. I looked up films and art that i associated with the descriptions ‘dark’ and ‘bleak’ such as The Joker and found the composer Hildur Guðnadóttir who’s music tends to lean towards the more darker tones and fit what I wanted to go for in my head.
I recall the planning piece i made before making the mindmap being very different. With this one (below) it was mostly trial and trying to come up with something as I was really struggling to come up with something. I realised however it wasn’t the direction I wanted to go in – preferring a more orchestral approach.
Other inspirations for the piece included Camille Saint-Seans – Danse Macabre, which I randomly found on my recommended. I later found that it was based upon The Plague also known as the The Black Plague which was extremely coincidental. Nevertheless it provided the grounds for an orchestral idea and the idea to really enhance the strings. I remember sampling a small section from the song that I really liked that would really inspire me.
After making sure the background was eerie enough, I used various risers and impacts to lead onto different bodies of the track. However, nothing is too structured creating the sensation of hollow growth. After the atmosphere was created, I began layering on the drums, filtering the high end and leaving in a lot of low, deep sound. I think the track connected with me because of the chance to create the atmosphere of what and how I was feeling in the moment as well. There is a sense of eerie and grounded realism, which I feel portrays the current climate of the world right now – or at least my view of it.
For the main part of the track I added some high-pitched horror sounding strings, I then duplicated it onto another audio track and took out all the high end on the duplicated track to add a deep bass to back up the main string audio track. This, along with the background atmospheres made up the first main portion of the piece overall. I kept it overall very minimal so each sound would be important to the piece.
The track moves on and there is another string section before the kicks become more progressive and to slowly transition into the outro. Towards the ending there is also a recording of a corrugated metal flooring being scraped recorded with a contact microphone that i recorded near the London Eye which i felt fit in with the eerie, dark atmosphere.
Once we all decided on the theme (colour) – we each picked a specific sub-theme to work on – i chose the colour black as i felt it would be a good way to explore something new in terms of using instruments I hadn’t used before as well as exploring a more orchestral theme and idea for the piece – which I had never really previously done.
I started off my piece with the initial background atmosphere I think the track connected with me because of the chance to create the atmosphere of what and how I was feeling in the moment as well. There is a sense of eerie and grounded realism, which I feel portrays the current climate of the world right now – or at least my view of it. The colour black was a really good inspiration and source to unleash all the emotion and helped lead the direction of the tonalities I wanted to use as well.
I began by using the ‘cinema 1.4’ instrument in UVI workstation which creates an eerie ghostly atmosphere and played in very simple progressions, just to create a very basic pulse like rythm in the background. On top of that I layered and used the ‘Dark Knight” software instrument which created a really deep low note to create a very airy dark atmosphere.
underneath both of those I layered a really low kick and snare to create a slow paced rhythm for the introduction. For the beginning this was all I did to just lay the foundation for the overall piece and give me something to work towards.
I found that using Cecelia allowed you to completely stretch ordinary sound samples into very vivid, wide open soundscapes/ rhythms – especially with the time based modules. By adjusting the duration it allows the sample to become stretched, widening the overall atmosphere of the sound ( a bit like time-stretching in Logic but a bit more “real time”)
I found it really easy to use, all the controls were very conveniently placed and efficient in terms of the overall productivity of the VST – its very simple. I inserted a drum break, distorted into a wave form, added a phaser. I found it really easy to just add effects and remove them – nothing seemed too complex in terms of sound editing. Just randomly messing around to see what type of sound you can create is very fun – from turning something very simple into something completely different in a matter of moments.
Im definitely interested in Cecelias ability to change more rhythm based percussion – i know that it allows users to make very luscious sounding pads, however i feel like it has the potential to make very unique sounding drums as well – especially with the multiple distortion and phaser effects.
