HANDS OF PROVIDENCE ARCHIVE

Today was our introduction to the ideas and history of the audio essay. Focusing on two examples of the medium, one being a meditation on a call to prayer by Pei Ann Yeoh. The discussion revolved around the role and perception of a call to prayer to many different people, religious and non religious. Secondly was a piece by Mark Fisher, formally of CRUU, titled On a vanishing land. This piece was much more a story driven piece, emotive in delivery and description, building a landscape using many different elements such as texture, music, spoken word narrative and silence.

These 2 examples presented in such a stark contrast allowed for us to realise the potential and variety of what an audio essay can be. It’s non linear and fluid nature allows for the creator to include and explore subjects and elements of anything they say fit which is truly what experimental art is about.

This sparked some initial idea of which I will build a map for my own essay. My current reading materials are a combination of esoteric history, occultism, psychology, psychedelia and paganism. I’m also in the process of learning field recording using tape and experimenting with processes that degrade the tape that create unpredictable effects. The idea of creation of the new through decay ,philosophically and literally, is something I aim to explore. It’s transformative qualities are what I’m interested in.

After a few recorded improvisations, applying practices learnt in class and my own recent developments in production, I created a piece of drone art named PanicBeat. A piece of music that reflects feelings of extreme tension, elements of paranoia, layers of melancholia and a score quality close to that of an 80s crime thriller.

on reflection the inspiration of this piece came from my tumultuous living situation that’s heavily unpredictable and lives on constant tension. My idea was to turn those feelings and elements of discomfort into something that could be a positive peace of art by transformation of those domestic disturbances.

The process, yet arduous was a learning process on how to tame raw sound while applying the physical language of Braxton. Creating polarity in EQ created the harmony and dissonance that I often look for in all sonic creation. The use of tape sampling allowed the harmonies to wither and breakdown in an unpredictable but purposeful manner. The reverb and granular processing allowed for the track to sway in an oceanic fashion without losing its grip on the shore. The tension comes through chord exploration although I am not familiar with any chord structures per se, I try to play purely based on what feels right.

The track builds intentionally as would tension in a scene of a movie, while still being slightly generative in nature. A sense of impending pressure is always great for noise and industrial music I find. The name reflects the tracks essence. A panic can be a pulse, in this instance it’s a continuous bass pulse that runs through out the track, I took inspiration from the early post dub scorn records such as Evanescence. I wanted the track to reflect some physical attributes of panic in the human body, such as long breathing that could present itself as a drone, the pulse of a heartbeat, or the textural scraping of finger biting.

Although this track could be seen as morbid in nature, I wanted to reflect something of real experience, although maybe in a slightly edgy hyperbolic fashion, I hope it gives a sense of realism when it comes to the darker experiences we face through life, and how the negative can be processed and transformed to become some constructive and self reflective.

After some days of deliberation and brainstorming, this collection of instruments proved to be most applicable for the creation of my final sound submission. With the use of multi effects, no input mixing, and granular effects processing at the end of the chain, I was able to create a sea of sound that could be tamed through live editing through logic and tweaking on the fly. As with most of my ideas, it sonically and physically takes shape as a collage, but always beginning as a piece of physical art. I created a collage that reflected a multitude of situations and emotions with an array of different colours and tones. The act of collaging can free the mind of any preconceived overthinking and editing which helps the process.

Then as a point of source material, including Braxtons language of music direction I will proceed to record for a few hours to create a sense of autonomy or something with generative qualities to then later decipher at the editing stage.

The combination of giant reverbs combined with overdrive and delay tends to create a more melancholic, abrasive texture which I believe reflects my character as a visual and sonic artist. There’s a fluidity to its effect on synthesis which gives much more space for new ideas and pleasant accidents.

I’m currently in process of gathering the essential elements from the on going classes and the material and processes in which we’ve been shown in class. This combined with my own materials and research will serve as the core ideas for my final sound submission. Focusing heavily on Anthony Braxtons language types of music and the idea of multi directional music, in combination with my interest in contemporary classical, film scores and noise music, my initial ideas are to record a live set using a multitude of instruments such as granular processing, reverb devices and tape sampling to conduct a multi directional score.

I’m very much inspired by the duality in art, whether it be conflict of sound and emotions in music or dissonance as a form of creating a new type of feeling. My own research into chaos magick (Condensed Chaos by Phil Hine ) and the psychological of how sound can affect us on a deeper level will also be applicable here.

The idea is to fall somewhere between light and dark, exploring the polarity’s of each element, emotionally and directionally, while still holding a sense of comprehensive structure in the music.

One more thing to add is that the illustrations of Braxton reminded me of sigils used in esoteric practices, almost cryptic in design but charged and full of purpose if used correctly or fully understood. I found this correlation beautiful and has served as inspiration for my final project. More to follow.

Our second class of group improvisation was a further elaboration on our previous exercise. Firstly we discussed the fundamentals and key elements of improvisation in a musical environment such as noting key words that relate to the practise. This gave us a source language to pull from and inspire during the process while also discussing as a group why these parameters can serve as a mast on a ship if you will, while in the process of improvisation. A way of stabilising chaos amongst a cacophony. In this exercise we were able to include our own electronic instruments to include much more of our own character of sound. It was an interesting blend of acoustic and electronic instruments of a wide variety including granular synths, guitars, samplers and homemade devices. The lesson I learnt from this session was the importance of patience and active listening.

The importance of knowing one’s role, even though the nature of this is usually mercurial, it’s imperative to know when to insert yourself and when to fall back and let what’s being created breathe. And to let others explore the space sonically when they feel it’s necessary. The social aspect of these sessions for me are inspiring. A lot is to be learnt from the process of collaboration with others or have different experiences and tastes.

Another important lesson here was importance and grasping minimalism and maximalism in sound, and how silence itself holds its own weight in the sonic universe. In a loud world, silence is a virtue.

During today’s class session we participated in the practice of musical improvisation as a group. The method was an exercise of keeping rhythm and timing within a circle based on a simple beat structure. This exercise allowed us to understand the importance of active listening within a musical structure, the fundamentals of time signatures, and the freedom to explore within given or created parameters. We were able to further elaborate on this practise with the addition of simple instruments which created an environment of something between harmony and chaos which is an inspiring place to be when creating music. We will explore this further as the weeks go on and I will apply these practises to my final project.

AFTER WEEKS OF BRAINSTORMING, CONFIGURING AND EXPERIMENTING WITH IDEAS AND PROCESS, AS A GROUP WE HAVE ARRIVED TO A COMPLETED DEMO. A FIFTEEN MINTUE PEACE EXPLORING IDEAS OF SONIC PSYCHEDELIA, CACOPHONY, AND DYSPHORIA.

USING FOUND AUDIO FOOTAGE OF SPECIFIC RELIGIOUS CULT FIGURES SUCH AS RON HUBBARD OF THE SCIENTOLOGY CULT AND JIM JONES OF THE PEOPLES TEMPLE, WE CONSTRUCTED A SOUND-BED AUDIO TEXTURED NOISE, RADIO STATIC, ATONAL PERCUSSION AND RESAMPLE FEEDBACK TO CREATE AN FEELING OF FRENZY, DISSONANCE, DISCORDANCE AND MANIA, MUCH REFLECTIVE OF THE ENVIRONMENTS AND IDEAS OF THESE CULT FIGURES.

THIS DEMO SERVES AS A SKETCH TO OUR FINAL DESIGN, IN WHICH NOISE MUSIC WAS AN EXTREMELY IMPORTANT FACTOR AND INSPIRATION FOR THE PIECE. NOISE AND INDUSTRIAL MUSIC HAS ALWAYS EXPLORED THE ARCANE AND DARK ELEMENTS OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE AND PSYCHOLOGY WHICH HAS SERVED AS THE IDEAL BEDROCK OF SOURCE MATERIAL FOR OUR RADIO PIECE.

THE ERA OF SATANIC PANIC DURING THE 1970’S ALSO SERVED AS A BIG PART OF INSPIRATION FOR THIS PROJECT. THE POLITICS OF ANTON LAVEY WITHIN THE CHURCH OF SATANISM AND HIS IDEAS OF HEDONISM AND HYPER-INDIVIDUALITY AND THE HELTER SKELTER THEORY OF CHARLES MANSON THE PARANOIA THAT INFLUENCED THE PSYCHOSPHERE OF AMERICA THAT AT THIS TIME WAS SOMETHING THAT REACHED ALL ASPECTS OF VISUAL AND AUDIBLE MEDIA.

FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF OUR RADIO SHOW WE HAVE CHOSEN TO EXPERIMENT WITH THE PROCESS OF RECORDING, RE-RECORDING AND THEN RESAMPLING MATERIAL THROUGH THE USE OF A FIELD RECORDER, A TAPE DICTAPHONE AND THE SOMA ETHER DEVICE. THIS PROCESS WILL CREATE AN ANALOGUE/FOUND FOOTAGE TEXTURE TO THE AUDIO GIVING A SENSE OF REALISM AND WHILE ADDING RETROISTIC QUALITIES.

THIS PROCESS ALSO CREATES OPPORTUNITY FOR AUDIO ANOMALIES IN THE RECORDING PROCESS SUCH AS FEEDBACK, TEXTURES FROM THE CONVERSION OF DIGITAL SAMPLES TO TAPE AND THEN BACK TO DIGITAL THROUGH STEREO RESAMPLING. THE SOMA ETHER DEVICE LOCATES ELECTROMAGNETIC FREQUENCIES THROUGH ALMOST EVERY OBJECT SUCH AS BEING ABLE TO CAPTURE RADIO FREQUENCIES THROUGH TREES. THIS RECORDING PROCESS HAS HELPED FURTHER EXPLORE THE MEANS OF EXPERIMENTATION WHEN WORKING WITH A CONCEPT AND MULTIPLE RECORDING PROCESSES.

WE ARE ALSO WORKING ON A SCRIPT IN WHICH THE AUDIO FROM THE INTERVIEWS WILL BE ARRANGED AT RANDOM AND STITCHED BACK TOGETHER. THIS BURROUGHS APPROACH WILL ADD NEW AND EXCITING CONTEXT TO THE MATERIAL AND ALLOW US TO WORK IN A MUCH MORE FREE-FLOWING MANNER ALLOWING MORE OPPORTUNITIES FOR HAPPY ACCIDENTS AND A MORE AUTHENTIC FINAL PIECE OF RADIO ART.

THE FOCAL POINT OF OUR GROUPS RADIO SHOW HAS SHIFTED TOWARDS THE INFLUENCE OF CULT FIGURES. THE POWER OF A PREACHER AND HIS MESSAGE. TAKING IDEAS FROM HISTORIES MOST POPULAR AND HATED FIGURES OF CULTURE AND THEIR ABILITY TO INFLUENCE A MASS THROUGH DEMENTED GOSPEL OR SUBVERTED DEVOTION. THROUGH SOURCING THE AUDIO FILES OF THE CONGREGATION OF SCIENTOLOGY, SERMONS OF RELIGIOUS GROUPS OF DAVID KORESH AND CHARLES MANSON WE HAVE SORT TO CONSTRUCT AN AUDIO COLLAGE OF RELIGIOUS RHETORIC BY WEAVING THE WORDS OF THESE FIGUREHEADS INTO A NEW PIECE OF AUDIO ON WHICH THE LISTENER CAN TUNE INTO AND DECIPHER ITS CONTENT.

OUR APPROACH TO THIS CONCEPT IS THROUGH RE-RECORDING INTERVIEWS INTO TAPE/DICTAPHONE FORMAT AND THEN RESAMPLING INTO GRANULAR SYNTH ENGINE THAT REPURPOSES THE SOUND AND STRUCTURE. THROUGH PROCESS OF RANDOMISATION AND RESTRUCTURE, WE HOPE TO CREATE SOMETHING THAT PERSONIFIES THE ABSURDITY OF RELIGIOUS HYSTERIA AND ITS QUALITIES.

WE WANT THE LISTENER TO EXPERIENCE THIS RADIO SHOW AS IF IT WAS A REAL SERMON BEING BROADCAST BY THE MOST HEINOUS FIGURES WHO HAVE WARPED SACRED TEACHINGS INTO THEIR OWN DEMENTED VIEW OF SALVATION THROUGH MANIPULATION AND TREACHERY.

AS A FOUNDATION OF OUR GROUPS PROJECT RADIO PIECE I HAVE BEEN INSPIRED TO EXLORE THE CONCEPT, PHILOSOPHY AND INFLUENCE OF ACCELLERATIONISM. MY INITAL INTEREST WAS SPIKED FROM AN OBSERVATION OF OUR CURRENT RELATIONSHIP WITH ATTENTION AND THE NEED FOR IMMEDIACY.

SOCIAL MEDIA HAS NO DOUBT WHITTLED DOWN THE MARGINS OF OUR ATTENTION SPAN THROUGH A CULTURE OF FOCUSING ON HYPER-INDIVIDALITY, SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION AND HYPERMAXXING ANY QUALITY OF ANY SUBJECT PURELY TO PRESENTS ITS CREATORS 15 MINUTES OF FAME. NICK LANDS IDEAS ON A FUTURE IN WHICH CULTURE HAS COLLAPSED UPON ITSELF, THE EXCESS, GREED AND DESIRE FOR PROFIT HAS LAUNCHED HUMANITY INTO A TECHNOSPHERE REMINISCENT OF YOUR WORST DYSTOPIAN NIGHTMARE.

ALL IDEAS OF THE HUMAN PSYCHE SACRED AND SPECIAL, MORPHED INTO A CACOPHONY OF THE FAMILIAR, MUNDANE AND ABSURD. MY IDEA IS TO CREATE A PIECE OF AUDIO THAT REFLECTS THE IDEA OF SPEEDING UP A PROCESS AS OF A MEAN TO AN END, A NEW CYCLE FORCED INTO IMMEDIACY. THE IDEA IS TO PRESENT AN AUDIO REPRESENTATION OF THIS PROCESS, EXPLORING THEMES OF RELIGIOUS DOOMSDAY CULTS, SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS AS MARTYRS OF ACCELLERATIONISM AND ITS ULTIMATE END OF PSEUDO ABSOLUTION THROUGH MERGING MAN AND MACHINE IN SERVICE OF INEVITABLE PROGRESS OR PROPHECY.