I’ve spent the last few hours reviewing many recordings from the previous three trips. Editing them down but not too much just getting rid of handling noise, something that I want to not have in the recordings. I’ve considered why. Peter Wright speaks about the recorder not being heard in his work and I’ve also considered why I’m obsessed with being silent within them. But I believe this composition has a better result when it’s more of the environment heard than handling noise.
I’ve filtered the Pre amp hiss on the Geofon recordings as the Zoom H5 didn’t have the right powerful preamps to push it, and I trimmed some recordings. I named them and put them into two folders. These field recordings will be used in the compositions.
The next step is to create some tape loops that work excellently and by that, I mean at least reads more than not read. The last tape loops are sometimes inaudible for a long period of time which on a small loop isn’t a good thing. So let’s fix that before my improvised performance.
I went again today to record the final field recordings to use within my prototype piece/pieces. I decided to explore earlier on in the day and continue to use my Geofon in other ways, as well as normal XY recording from the Zoom H5. On the way to the park at the dock, 5 minutes walk from it there was a rushing sound coming from underneath me through the drainage and I decided to record it as well. The tide was rushing out between the barriers. I recorded it with XY and Geofon.
I found the sounds through both physical air and contact to be of interest to me, historically this area used to be a huge shipping section of London until the early 1970s when it became a large housing project. It now faces gentrification and change, Notably, this area where I’m recording is the last section that remains or of. The dockyard is still almost original to this day. The idea that perhaps the waters have crashed amongst these docks over years without change makes my field recording almost a recontextualised aspect of today. The same sounds that previous humans in the past living in the early 1940s would have heard. Despite the noisy planes flying over London City Airport.
Continuing onwards there was a section of large reeds and small birds living on the peninsula above the waters. I find nature thriving in large urbanised areas to be of interest to me. Jez Riley French has a similar love for the microscopic sounds amongst cacophonous city soundscapes and this happened to be one of those.
After this, I finally arrived at the beginning of the park and ecological section. I recorded some loud bird songs and the changing soundscapes amongst them. Again I found the constant battle between noise pollution and nature to be inspiring, although we’ve destroyed and taken the landscape from animals such as these tiny birds, there’s always a will to survive in nature. The natural instinct to remain alive and thrive is supported and destroyed by humans all at the same time. Conflicting. It’s interesting how all of my field recordings within this area can be used as evidence of this, as well as a way of understanding this area through its soundscapes that I’ve recorded.
I also spent some time attaching my Geofon to non-human objects in interest to see if they resonated as much as the other objects I attached my Geofon to, I’ve found that the sounds were a lot different. I found the resonating frequencies were less high-pitched and metallic sounding. To know that noise pollution still resonates within logs and dirt, one could ask how this affects the wildlife within it?
I listened to a few more areas of interest and found different resonating frequencies and sounds within the objects that absorbed the noise pollution and how it interacted with it, based off of my recordings one could make the assumption that a lot of the wildlife is being affected by the noise pollution.
I then carried on to the previous area where I was recording the first trip within here and explored different sections of the park that I had perhaps missed. I recorded the same turbine again which unfortunately wasn’t moving once again. A shame as I feel this is an important part of this ecological park and I wanted to see if it made any noise through contact or XY air vibrations.
The last aspect which brought my interest to me was the tall skyscrapers across the river in Canary Wharf. I did a research audio paper on noise pollution and the role a sound artist could have in combatting it. I remember finding out the damage that tall skyscrapers bring towards the city’s soundscape reflecting sound in large amounts. Seeing as the London City Airport is right near it, I’m not surprised by the amount of noise pollution that reflects from it, some of these planes during my recording were so loud they sounded thunderous.
You can see Canary Wharf to the east in this first photo and the City of London to the west. Two large sections of skyscrapers covered in glass reflective sound material.
The next step is to take all my field recordings and edit and chop them into a file of field recordings I can use. I think my final piece will be a performance with tape loops, synths and field recordings. Improvise 5, 5-minute pieces and put them together. A sonification/reflection of this area into a music concrete/ambient/minimalist piece of work. After cataloguing my sounds and editing them I will make a new tape loop as the last few were a bit amateurish and didn’t actually sound nice to my taste for this project.
I’m continuing the progress of finishing my proposal document, at this point it’s almost done basically and I’ve finished adding the weekly schedule for each project. I can’t get any feedback as its Christmas and all the lecturers are on break but I’ve decided I’ll leave it how it is for now and come back again next week to finish it and see If can i get any feedback before my hand-in at the start of the first week of university.
The journal starts by explaining the project idea. It’s using city data sonfied into a musical composition. The project uses pieces of public data such as noise, air pollution, foot traffic and other pieces of data as triggers or attenuators for the composition, essentially letting the city create the music. Generative city music. I found these quotes interesting.
Eno calls his approach “generative music,” defining it as “system-propagated music that is in a state of constant flux.” These systems (e.g. Discreet Music and Music for Airports) are driven by phase-shifting looping processes similar to those exhibited in the work of Steve Reich. Reich’s work receives a similar cybernetic analysis from Strange [9]. Lucier’s 1965 Music for Solo Performer, categorized by Pickles as first-order cybernetics, takes a different approach [10]. In the piece, Lucier employs data-driven music composition techniques to map brainwave data to control musical parameters, specifically percussion patterns. Drawing from these influences, I explored generative music systems, phase-shifted looping, and data-driven music in the Signal to Noise Loops project.
I’ve also looked into Eno and his idea of generative music, such as Music for Airports in which Eno used tape loops and let the long tapes go in and out of time to teach other to create compositional elements that decide amongst themselves what is happening. This project is similar in nature and decides to follow in the footsteps, but instead of tape, it uses data from cities as information to decide elements in the composition.
I used noise data from a series of sensors around Dublin to drive a performance system I created with Python, Max for Live, and Ableton Live (Fig.1). At the outset of each performance, I downloaded the most up-to-date data archives and stored them locally for the duration of the performance. The system explored the cybernetic ideas of looping, human-in-the-loop reflexivity, and evolution. It allowed me, as the performer, to record loops of improvised guitar passages live. The system then manipulated these loops through phase shifting
I found the way the creator has used Ableton and other software with the data to be of interest to me. Can I possibly sonify data from Stave Hill? Since it’s an ecological park there must be data available for me to use and translate over into compositional audible expression. Can Stave Hill speak for itself?
improvisations are treated as a starting point by the system, which always evolves, mutates, and iterates over the performer’s input. Exactly how that happens is determined once again by the data,
This is similar to how Eno describes the idea of generative music and letting the improvisations, similar to Eno stating that the initial parameters are decided by the human. Then left to create something amongst itself. It mutates and iterates itself into something new and different without thinking about why.
I found this article to spark heavy interest in my own portfolio work and my dissertation work. It speaks on issues going on in two maritime locations, Bali and Georgia. It argues why listening and recording are acts of activism when challenging the ongoing machine that is capitalism in these areas. There are fibre optic cables stretching across the oceans damaging coral reefs and oil tankers and boats creating large amounts of noise pollution underwater.
The writer references Labelle, Salomè and a few others.
The main discussion is around geopolitics and our involvement with listening and Anthropocene.
I think these themes have made me consider perhaps the issues going on at Stave hill, whether nowhere near as important or as important. I should look into what is happening now and in this location by the river Thames. What Anthropocene issues are occurring now in these locations? Perhaps listening is activism as this article states, that me going to listen and figure out what is happening is an act against thh machine.
The key here is to practice learning to listen to the imperfections: instead of thinking, this bass line isn’t powerful enough, “think” this bass line can be powerful enough after some sound design work and mixing. But how are the notes? By hearing past the immediate lack of impact, you become a better judge of whether or not a particular part (or the whole track) is going in the right direction.
I find this idea reliable and what I think VCV RACk brings to the table. Or modular synthesis in general. The composition is so unlike normal DAW composition that the idea of perfection at least for myself isn’t possible. I find modular synthesis a meditative sound practice. Allowing the sound to become whatever it wishes in my hands.
A similar technique can be found in ambient pieces such as Brian Eno’s Music for Airports, which is made from multiple tape loops of different lengths. This “analogue” approach to the concept is truly asynchronous and played forever, uneven tape loops are unlikely to ever resynchronize. You could achieve a similar effect in your DAW by offsetting one of your loop lengths so that it’s not quite aligned with the metric grid. Try playing with the amount of offset until you find relationships which sound interesting. This can create some very unusual rhythmic effects.
Something I’ve researched before is Brian Eno’s music for airports where he created generative tape loops and allowed the composition to become what it became. I found this quote again reliable to my own current practice, with tape loops and modular synthesis.
Record the sound of an open microphone in a quiet room (or even just a channel on your audio interface with nothing connected) and then dramatically boost the level of the recording” The inherent noise of mics, preamps, and audio interfaces can take on a new character when boosted enough to be heard as an intentional element in a mix.
Sample the sound of a turntable’s needle in the “runout” groove at the end of a vinyl record.
This idea of noise and colouring compositions or recordings is something I’m familiar with and reading this section made me nod and smile with an agreement. Sometimes the silence in the track or the noise/sounds within it is what makes it sound as if it has depth. Plugins such as Izotope vinyl create this hiss and hum that is usually not wanted. But the noise and other sound elements can really make a track feel thicker with depth. I found the idea of recording the preamp noise and then using it in a composition to be really good!
Field recordings of almost any source can take on the character of abstract noise, provided they’re processed in the right ways. Try applying lots of reverb to urban, factory, or nature recordings
Using field recordings as abstract noise to create something for hiss or hum is a great way of composing, seems field recordings really do have multiple uses.
Instead of always trying to maximize the quality of your listening environment, try occasionally listening in a deliberately “bad” way. Particularly during the creation phase, doing this might help you hear things that are acoustic illusions which you might find musically interesting enough to actually incorporate into your music.
Honestly, something I’ve never considered but now will, the sweet spot can seem like the perfect area to compose but like this section describes, the imperfection can bring ideas towards what we couldn’t have realised before. Perhaps a weird filter through a wall can make us want to filter our bass or change our tone if we’re not in the perfect sweet spot of the speakers’ angles of production.
I have booked out a Volca FM synth, as I never used the Volca’s enough. Since using it in the first year and borrowing the Volca Modular the machines keep getting recommended to me as cheap good beginner synths. I’m curious about using the Volca FM in conjunction with my Tascam and other things I’ve been making. Seeing if I can send CV signals between them?
I’ve got a Zoom H5 and a few mics for example a Geofon that I’m recording with the current gear I have. I purchase some cassette tapes to make sure I had some tape to create loops. I do think I need more field recording and time spent at Stave Hill.
I think I need to read this Environmental Sound Arts book that I have and reference some artists in my work. I need to create a few more examples as what I have set in mind is to create 5 generative/performative pieces for my portfolio hand-in. I want to set up a circle of equipment within my room and perform improvised generative pieces with field recordings, and synths, into the tape and use tape loops? I probably need a big interface or a mixer with more inputs than my small Tascam one.
I decided to do a Modular only sampling composition on VCV RACK and see the outcome. I loaded in four separate samplers and loaded in samples from my ecological park field recording session and my Thames field recording session. I then placed them all into the mixer and ran some delays and reverbs. Including a sequencer that played one of the samples as notes.
I’m impressed with this software and what it can do alone as well as the samples when ran through modular systems and the ability they have on sound design. I want to try this gain with different field recordings that I need to get.
I decided to copy this similar effect but with my own tape loops. I recorded two of the same parts of a song onto two cassette loops and then played them together at the same time. This was the outcome.
An attempt at copying Come Out
I don’t think I did the best job, I read that he created two identical loops calibrate to be at the same speed and length. I didn’t do the same. At times the loop players closely and you can hear the phase but it’s not as perfect as his.
I’m attempting to create more tape loops in order to have a few different ones to compose a generative piece. And use my second tape machine as another player going into my Tascam mixing desk. I’m curious as to what the different forms offer in length and audio.
I first split open a few more tapes and started cutting them down to size and looked online at a few different tape loop options that others have done. I tried this first one but It wasn’t working for some reason and I need to retry it again. Perhaps the tension wasn’t enough to make it spin around the heads.
I then went back to basics and created a similar small tape loop.
I did find that most of the tapes sounded horrible and didn’t really connect flush very well to the tape heads. I need to make a few more and compose with samples on tape loops alongside VCV RACK, and another thing is creating the phase loop that Reich creates that goes in and out of phase together. I have two cassette players so it could be interesting.
