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.
RADIO HAS ALWAYS BEEN SOMETHING OF A MYSTERY TO ME. WHETHER ITS THE EARLY MEMORIES OF LONG CAR JOURNEYS ON THE MOTORWAY AS A CHILD, IVE ALWAYS BEEN FASCINATED BY ITS CONSTANT PRESENCE AND ABILITY TO CREATE AN ENVIRONMENT OF COMFORT.
AN ARDUOUS JOURNEY WOULD BECOME A CIRCUS WHILE GAZING OUT THE WINDOW INTO NATURE, THE MUSIC AND NARRATIVE WOULD CREATE THE CONTEXT INTO WHICH IMAGINATION COULD EXPLORE. WHILE REFLECTING ON OUR FIRST CLASS IN WHICH WE DISCUSSED THE DIRECTIONALITY OF RADIO.
UNLIKE A FORMATTED PIECE OF MUSIC, SET TO ITS PERIMETERS AND CONSTRAINTS, RADIO WORKS MORE LIKE A MARATHON OF SOUND AND STORY. THE LISTENERS EXPERIENCE IS USUALLY LIKE DIVING INTO SOMETHING THATS ALREADY BEGUN, AND THE LISTENER FINDS THEIR WAY THROUGH THE REEVES TO ENGAGE AND FIND A POINT IN WHICH THEY CAN FOCUS AND FOLLOW.
RADIO CAN ALSO SERVE AS A FOUNDATIONAL BACKGROUND, MUCH LIKE GREAT AMBIENT MUSIC DOES, NON INVASIVE BUT POIGNANT AND PRESENT. A MODE ON WHICH THE EAR AND MIND CAN TUNE IN AND OUT AT ANY GIVEN TIME TO INDULGE IN NEWS, GOSSIP, MUSIC OR POLITICS. THIS LINEAR YET FLUID STRUCTURE OF RADIO ALLOWS FOR A MYRIAD OF CONCEPTS TO CREATE IN ITS FORMAT. RADIO TO ME IS A FORM OF AUDIO TO BE PRESENTED IN ITS MOST MERCURIAL NATURE, UNDEFINED BY ENDINGS OR BEGINNINGS.
Doldens veils is a cavernous journey. This Mercurial piece of music is a journey into the chamber of the mind with its use of sustained chords, hollowing resonances and drone. From cacophony to absence, its unpredictable nature and structure create a world curiosity, bombast and despair. Familiar strings sounds warp into textures of insects and bellowing winds from unknown instruments. The mood of the music is a strange place between curious and unnerving, teasing discord with atonalism to create an environment of forces at war, emerging in the dark in patches of something abstract yet familiar. Exploring the primordial nature of the chord and its ability to present its self in many forms and colours, to alert or alarm or to shadow itself in the form of another. Its hints of eastern traditional music reminded me of the importance of masks in tribal culture and their ability to communicate something mystic and not always fully understood during ceremonial ritual.
BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW BY PANOS COSMOTOS IS A PSYCHEDELIC HORROR MOVIE RELEASED IN 2010. PRAISED FOR ITS UNIQUE CINEMATOGRAPHY AND UNSETTLING USE PSYCHEDELIC IMAGERY, THE VISUALS AND SCORE OF BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW ARE ABLE TO PERMEATE THE SKIN OF THE VIEWER THAT LEAVES A FEELING OF DISCOMFORT AND DYSPHORIA. THE ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK CREATED BY U.S BASED ARTIST SINIOA CAVES IS A JOURNEY OF PROGRESSIVE SYNTH-WAVE AND DARK AMBIENCE THAT FRAMES THE 1980’S PERIOD.
THERE’S A SENSE OF PARANOIA IN SINIOA’S WORK FOR BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW, MOST POTENTLY IN THE MOVIES MOST VISCERAL SCENE INVOLVING THE FILMS VILLAIN BARRY. A CULT LIKE INITIATION THROUGH THE USE OF WHAT SEEMS TO BE LSD BEGINS THE PROCESS OF RUPTURE WITHIN THE MOVIE, A START CONTRAST TO MOST THE FILMS CLINICAL SETTING. SLOW PULSES OF ANALOGUE TIMBRES BEGIN THE RISE SLOWLY TO THE FOREFRONT AS BARRY IS BEGINNING A PROCESS OF CHANGE. THE SOUND IS NOT CONSTANTLY PRESENT, MOMENTS OF SILENCE SERVE AS A SIGNIFIER OF CALM BEFORE A STORM, ACTING AS A NARRATIVE CUE FOR WHAT IS ABOUT TO UNFOLD. SLOW PROGRESSIONS AND TEXTURE AND BASS SWELLS EVOKE FEELINGS OF LOSS OF CONTROL, THE SOUND BECOMING THE GUIDE THROUGH THE ABSTRACT.
THE CONTINUITY OF THE SCORE THROUGH THE SCENES OF SURREAL IMAGERY SERVES AS A BOND BETWEEN SOUND AND VISUALS, CREATING A SENSE OF UNITY THROUGH PROGRESSION, REPETITION, CONTRAST AND RETURN, COMPLETING THE TRANSFORMATION OF BARRY. THE SYNCHRESIS HERE IS NOT RANDOM BUT EXTREMELY PURPOSEFUL AND FUNDAMENTAL. ITS BREAKS THE BOUNDARIES OF SOUND AND VISUAL BEING SEPARATE ENTITIES AND CREATES A HARMONY THAT RESULTS IN A VERY DISSONANT BUT REALISTIC ADAPTION OF A PSYCHEDELIC EXPERIENCE.
WHILE TRAVELLING TO THE U.S IN THE SUMMER I HAD THE OPPORTUNITY WITH MEET WITH DAN DE JONGH, THE CREATOR AND JOURNALIST OF DISCIPLINE MAG. DAN HAS BEEN A LONG TIME FIGURE IN THE INDUSTRIAL/ EXPERIMENTAL ART AND MUSIC SCENE, ADVOCATING AND PROMOTING THE UNDERGROUND SCENE FOR MANY YEARS, PREDOMINANTLY THROUGH HIS ONLINE PUBLICATION WHICH HAS GAINED CONSIDERABLE ATTENTION AMONG ARTISTS AND FANS. WHILE DISCUSSING THE CURRENT STATE OF INDUSTRIAL MUSIC OVER DINNER IN BROOKLYN IT OCCURRED TO ME THAT A BETTER WAY TO BRING ATTENTION TO PURVEYORS OF INDUSTRIAL ART LIKE DAN WAS TO CONDUCT AND INTERVIEW IN WHICH HE CAN EXPLAIN IN DETAIL HIS ORIGINS, PHILOSOPHY AND IDEAS ABOUT UNDERGROUND CULTURE. THIS WILL BE THE FIRST IN A SERIES OF INTERVIEWS OF THE NEXT 3 YEARS. PLEASE ENJOY.
What was your first experience with underground/experimental music?
That would take me back to 2009 to an amateur show in London, but I think the lead-up to that moment is also important. I spent much of my youth captivated with music, discovering new genres, researching artists, and obsessively buying CDs. I had a familiar journey from punk to metal and kind of settled on death metal, but I think that was born out of this juvenile idea that death metal represented some kind of end point of extremity, rather than genuinely feeling content. Around this time I started to gain an interest in slightly stranger, more left-of-field music, but still within arms reach of flagship metal genres. Some examples being post-metal from Neurosis and Isis, Mike Patton’s weirder and heavier bands like Fantômas and Mr. Bungle, progressive jam-out stuff like The Mars Volta, I was a little familiar with some of John Zorn’s Naked City, and I also listened to a lot of contemporary industrial music like Nine Inch Nails and Ministry. Through these artists, I was slowly learning that music had less boundaries than I was initially led to believe, but I didn’t have the vocabulary or grounding in the experimental music sound world to properly understand this yet. Funnily enough, gateway artists like Throbbing Gristle (et al.) were right around the corner from classic punk or Nine Inch Nails, but it would be years out of my teens before I discovered that world.
Fast forward to 2009 and I’m 20 years old and living out of home for the first time in London. My friend from Australia who happened to move to London around the same time played guitar in a band, and naturally I’d go to most of their gigs. They proudly declared themselves a “hard rock” band and I really cannot put into words how much I detested them. Everything from their complete wank of a sound and derivative virtuosity. It hurt my soul seeing them so often, but they were also friends and it came paired with me “hitting the town” so I just had to suck it up for the sake of having a social life.
This one night they played a battle of the bands gig at a venue at UCL in Central London. The premise was this: a few bands would play, and once they were finished the judges would measure the decibels from the crowd’s applause at the end, and whoever had the loudest crowd reaction won that night’s competition and progressed to the next stage. My friend’s band brought everyone they knew to come down and lend their tonsils at the end of the show. They got huge screams from all their friends, including from me, but I think it was out of frustration more than anything else, ha ha.
After they finished, on came a group of androgynous looking Japanese guys who I knew nothing about. I was immediately struck by their presentation – they had long, perfectly straight hair almost as far down as their buttocks, they were all incredibly skinny, but they were wearing really long and over-sized shirts that went down most of their bodies. The band was Bo Ningen, and much of the crowd had dispersed for their show, from memory there may have been like 10 people left to watch them. They started playing and there was a complete barrage of intense and fragmented sounds. They were using conventional rock instruments, but it was a sonic bathing unlike anything I had experienced before. It felt raw and structureless, but also calculated, or at least that they knew what they wanted out of the performance. I think it would have been the first time where I felt like the intent behind the band’s delivery mattered more than the specifics of what they were doing.
I imagine it was dismissed as a noisy mess by most of the crowd, but even though I wasn’t exactly sure what I was witnessing, I recognised that in order to deliver the wall of sound and visceral vocal performance that they did, it required a great deal of skill and dedication to their craft. At that stage, I only had metal and punk as reference points, and I struggled to place the band. I was like – that was more intense than any metal show I’ve ever seen, but it wasn’t metal, so how can that be?? I just couldn’t comprehend it. I spent the rest of the evening trying to talk endlessly to everyone there about the show, what I had witnessed, and the genres they may or may not fall under. Tacitly undermining my friend’s band in the process – ha!
At the end of their set, I was hyper-aware that they were being judged by the decibels of the audience and I wanted them to win. I felt so stupid that I had screamed for my friend’s band and tried desperately to bring the volume and encouraged as many people as possible to do the same. It was like that scene from Big Daddy – “we wasted the good surprise on you” – it felt like I’d wasted the good screaming on my friend’s band. But they won in the end, and I’m of the belief it was a blessing because the competition was beneath Bo Ningen.
Can you provide a brief background of Discipline Mag and its role. What was your initial idea for the publication?
I came up with the idea a couple of years after moving to Melbourne, Australia. Before Melbourne I’d been living in Hong Kong, a city which I have a deep sentimental connection to, but for someone who values music and music experiences so fundamentally, I found it to be culturally lacking in this respect. Melbourne on the other hand is widely regarded as a “cultural capital” (a term I rarely use unironically, but it fits here) and is home to lots of venues, bands and music scenes. I was compulsively seeing bands and performances from the moment I arrived in 2017, and in a way, I was making up for a perceived loss of time after Hong Kong.
It was also around this era (early-mid 2010s onwards) that I was obsessed with researching every corner possible that related to experimental underground music, particularly early industrial through to various flavours of noise/experimental music. I found that this obsession was increasingly leaving me culturally isolated amongst my friend circles who often opted for music that was synonymous with *having a good time* rather than anything that was challenging or less immediate (more on this in the Australia section). I knew that there was a big wide world of musically and subculturally aligned people out there, but it was up to me to find it.
I was also a keen reader of Pitchfork, The Quietus and various smaller online resources around that time. I was reading reviews, interviews and music news on a daily basis. What frustrated me was that – while my interests were being referenced on occasion, I wasn’t seeing the kind of content that I wanted, and I felt like few resources were actively covering this. I had this sense that if you peeled the lid back just a little bit, a lot of prominent musicians and fans did actually feel passionate about these experimental spaces, but it wasn’t being covered enough. So I guess the genesis came from a combination of this lack of coverage, combined with my compulsive gig attendances in Melbourne, which led me to feeling like perhaps I actually did have at least some authority that would warrant me taking on such a role as a “music journalist”, or “cultural chronicler” or whatever label you’d put on it.
Initially, I wanted video to be a big part of it all. Not necessarily bedroom YouTube videos, but subcultural exploration from unlikely places. The “discipline” both being both a reference to unconventional music and masochistic travel destinations like Asian mega cities or under-developed African countries. I’m a sucker for pain in many aspects of my life, and I’m sure depictions of my own suffering alongside music exploration in unfamiliar locations would make for great entertainment. Alas, Covid happened, so Discipline Mag, which was created around the end of 2019, had to quickly adapt to the new domestic reality of 2020.
How do you think underground music has helped you on a personal/emotional level and how do you think it benefits others?
On a personal level, as counter-intuitive as this sounds, I think this insane music has kind of helped keep me sane. Everyone needs purpose, interests or a set of beliefs. That might be parenthood, career, a band, religion or anything else. While some of those apply to myself, I’ve also found a sense of purpose with Discipline Mag. Sometimes I destroy myself with the volume of work required to keep this thing going, but I generally get really positive feedback from people and even admiration at times, so hearing from people that you’re doing what you initially intended to do, as haphazard as it feels, is really meaningful and motivating.
As for others, that’s quite subjective and I’m not sure I can confidently answer. But I would have to give a cliche’d answer and use the dreaded c-word: community. I’m sure there are misfits out there who have found solace with others through their shared interest in avant-garde music culture. Conversely, I think there are more normies (not a disparaging word) in the noise scene than most people would think. Perhaps the dichotomy between regular day-to-day life and bizarre or shocking experimentalism is therapeutic or cathartic somehow. But again, I’m speaking in generalisations here so it’s possible I’m way off.
What do you love, and what do you hate about noise music?
What I love is the capacity for excess. I’ve always pushed things too far, and so free-form/experimental/noise music seems to naturally align with my character. And I also love the commitment many people have for the genre. Not many people “get it”, but those that do tend to be really passionate about it.
And what do I hate? When the spirit of excess becomes predictable or when the shocking themes become forced. More than other music, noise music is about the sentiment, and when it starts to feel disingenuous or lazy, that’s when I tap out.
What is your experience with sound/music in Australia?
The Australian musical palette tends to focus on music that is synonymous with having a good time, which is something I struggle with. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been going to music festivals since my early teens and I do enjoy having a bit of a blow out at a festival or event from time to time. But having fun and keeping the beers flowing is the central premise for a lot of music in Australia and, from a cultural and creative standpoint, it seriously bores me.
Leading on from this, Australia isn’t always the best for experimental music, but this would also be partly attributed to population size as people are passionate about their respective, non-experimental, music interests. And there are definitely a committed few in Melbourne and Sydney who do some cool stuff. Furthermore, Australia does have a small place in experimental music history through acts like SPK, JG Thirlwell, John Murphy, certain eras of Nick Cave etc.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the most profound experiences I’ve had in Australia have tended to involve foreign artists. But there are some cool and unique events that happen here. The annual Dark Mofo festival in Hobart, Tasmania tends to bring a wide range of darker music, and always includes at least a few impressive experimental artists (as well as a killer metal event). I’ve only been once in 2018, but it was an incredible experience. The entire city of Hobart becomes part of the event; there are installations, galleries, and shows everywhere and at all times, all in the dead of winter. It’s the brainchild of David Walsh who also opened an incredibly grand museum called MONA which has brought a whole new lease of life to Tasmania. Walsh made his fortune as a professional gambler, which is another wild aspect of his story. Blixa Bargeld of Einstürzende Neubauten at one point said he planned on playing the festival every year. When I went in 2018 some of the best experimental artists I saw were William Basinski and Merzbow. It was the best Merzbow set I’ve seen and the atmosphere was completely on point.
Also, the creator of the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival is Australian. ATP was a cool concept and had some very noisy/experimental lineups when curated by the right people, I think Sonic Youth curated one of the best lineups. I only ever attended a sister event, I’ll Be Your Mirror, in London in 2012. But generally speaking, my most treasured memories around noise/experimental music would have taken place abroad. The point I’m circling around here is that while people are definitely passionate about these spaces in Australia, it tends to require a move abroad to do something meaningful or to experience the pinnacle of what these scenes have to offer.
EFFIGY FOR COMMUNICATION IS A SOUND PIECE REFLECTING THE STRUGGLES OF COMMUNICATION IN RELATIONSHIPS AND DISTANCE. THE PROCESS FOR THIS PIECE WAS HAVING A THERAPEUTIC LIKE DISCUSSION WITH MY FRIEND AND FILMMAKER ETIENNE WHO IS ORIGINALLY FROM HONG KONG. WE DISCUSSED AT LENGTH THE STRUGGLES OF COMMUNICATION WITH LONG DISTANT RELATIONSHIPS AND DECIDED TO CREATE AN EFFIGY/LETTER THAT COULD BE READ ALLOWED, RECORDED AND THEN BURNT AS A FORM OF CONCLUSION. I THEN SET UP MULTIPLE PEDALS INCLUDING A REVERB, DELAY AND A DISTORTION UNIT AS THE PRIMARY SOURCE OF SOUND. THE IDEA WAS TO LIVE SCORE THE ANGUISH AND FEELING OF LOSS THAT COMES WITH THE BREAKDOWN OF A RELATIONSHIP WHILE CREATING SPATIALITY AND AMBIENCE TO JUXTAPOSE THOSE EMOTIONS TO REFLECT THE COMPLEXITIES OF THE HUMAN EMOTION SPECTRUM. THE PROCESS WAS TO THEN DECISIVELY GO THROUGH THE LIVE RECORDINGS AND STITCH TOGETHER THE APPROPRIATE ELEMENTS. ON REFLECTION THIS PROCESS WAS A NEW APPROACH FOR ME BY INCLUDING A FRIENDS STORY IN THE MUSIC AND PRODUCTION PROCESS WHICH MADE THE WHOLE CREATION FEEL A LOT MORE ORGANIC AND SPIRITUALLY RICH. THE PROCESS OF LIVE RECORDING WITH THE ANALOGUE EQUIPMENT WAS A SLIGHTLY UNPREDICTABLE PROCESS AS THE MAGNETAR DISTORTION UNIT RELIES ON AN IMPROVISATIONAL APPROACH WHERE TWEAKING AND MODULATING REVEALS ITS POTENTIAL. I THINK OVERALL THE INITIAL IDEA AND ETHOS OF THE TRACK TO THE ACTUAL RECORDING AND PRODUCTION PROCESS WAS REFLECTIVE OF THE TASK GIVEN, INCLUDING TRUE SPOKEN WORD, SPATIALITY IN SOUND AND A SOUND PIECE THAT REFLECTS MY OWN IDEOLOGY IN MUSIC AND SOUND.
JANUSHOVED IS A COPENHAGEN BASED AMBIENT MUSIC RECORD LABEL RAN BY THE PROLIFIC SOUNDN ARTIST INTERNAZIONALE. BOASTING A LARGE DISCOGRAPHY OF OVER A DECADES WORTH OF BOUNDARY PUSHING ELECTRONIC MUSIC INFLUENCED BY LOVE, HUMAN PSYCHOLOGY AND NATURALISTIC ELEMENTS SUCH AS THE OCEANS AND EARTHS LANDSCAPES. ILLUSIVE ARTIST HERCEGOVINA RELEASED THEIR SEMINAL ALBUM ESPIRIT DE CORPS (GROUP SPIRIT) IN MARCH 2018. WITH ITS USE OF FIELD SAMPLES OF PROTESTS AND HEAVY FOCUS ON AMBIENT PADS, UNDULATING BASS MOVEMENTS AND WATER LIKE FLUIDITY IN ITS SOUND, ESPIRIT DE CORPS STANDS AS A VERY UNIQUE AND PROGRESSIVE PIECE OF AMBIENT MUSIC. ITS MIXING PROCESS SEEMS TO CREATE A FULLY IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE AS IF THE LISTENER IS BENEATH THE SURFACE OF THE SOUND, WHILE CREATING AN SPHERE OF SPATIAL AUDIO. THE UNDULATING BASS IS SPORADIC YET DOSENT BECOME INVASIVE IN THE MIX, IT SERVES TO KEEP THE TRACK DYNAMIC YET UNPREDICTABLE. THIS CONTEMPORARY STYLE OF MIXING SEEMS TO WORK VERY WELL FOR MUSIC RELEASED ON ANALOGUE FORMAT (TAPE CASSETTE). THERE’S A OLD YET MODERN FEEL TO THE SOUND, SOMETHING REDISCOVERED YET FUTURISTIC IN ITS PRODUCTION AND MIXING PROCESS.
