This is a screenshot of PaklSound1, an iPhone music-making application developed by Patryk Laurent:
Laurent explains that the synthesizer is inspired by the Tenori-On. More details at pakl.net/iphone/PaklSound1 (via the-palm-sound.blogspot.com).
Month: August 2008
Quote of the Week: Noise v. Sound v. Noise
From a brief essay by artist Haroon Mirza at nyartsmagazine.com:
Noise, like other sound, is the result of physical events that take place through space and in time, but unlike other sounds, noise is a nomad; it has no place to go once it has departed; it just gets absorbed into the materiality of the space that surrounds it. Sound, on the other hand, has a destination. Sound is more than often generated to perform functions of communication and affect. Although both sound and noise are always unwillingly received, it’s only sound that is welcome whereas noise is a repellent or is destroyed. However, the ear of the beholder governs the distinction between noise and sound. Noise and sound mutate in and out of one another. Structures, intensities, documentation, reverberation, manipulation, and many other intended or non-intended interventions dictate whether vibrations are received or dismissed as noise. Both can be structured to create music but music itself can be received as either music, sound, or noise depending on the ear of the beholder.
More onMirza at clickfolio.com/haroon.
Other Music—Sponsored Drone-Pop MP3
The website of the record label Kranky, kranky.net, hasn’t updated its free download, a slice of Stars of the Lid, since January 2007. But a free Kranky-derived track popped up today at the digital online storefront of Other Music (digital.othermusic.com), the great retailer in Manhattan on East 4th, not far from New York University. The track in question is from a half year earlier still, a pulsing bit of post-rock minimalism replete with chanting (imagine Donovan teaming up with La Monte Young), but it’s an excellent reason to sign up for a free Other Music account and to check out the store and try out its interface. The track (encoded at a hearty 320kbps) is “Green Vines” by Bird Show (aka Ben Vida), off the 2006 album Lightning Ghost. No direct link is available, but just click on the Other Music link above; this is likely a short-term offer, so do so soon. Registration is required, and each weekly email newsblast from Other Music includes a new free download.
A Little Rain Music MP3 from C.P. McDill
In this hour-plus recording, C.P. McDill mixes slow, long, held tones with raw nature sounds (MP3). The contrast is between the gently meandering music and the inclement weather just outside. The immediate impression is of a church organist stuck in a storm, and keeping himself busy until the storm passes. The rain has a nice spatial dimension, providing further depth and contrast between the nearby drops and the distant thunder. And when birds chirp, as they do on occasion, they provide a kind of hybrid point of view: on the one hand, they’re part of the field-recording half of the equation, but on the other they’re certainly trying to stay out of the rain and they’re making their own birdsong, so they have just as much in common with the “musical” portion of the track. More info at the releasing label, webbedhandrecords.com, and at the recording’s page at archive.org. More on McDill at cpmcdill.com.
Underworld Exhibit at Jacobson Howard Gallery (Manhattan)
There’s long been a creative and free-flowing osmosis between Underworld, the pop-minded techno act, and Tomato, the London-based design collective, which share personnel as well as aesthetic fixations. At the Jacobson Howard Gallery in Manhattan there is currently, through August 15, an exhibit of work by and related to both outfits. I attended the opening, last Thursday, August 7, where I shot the images below. The exhibit is titled Beautiful Burnout Artjam: The Art of Underworld, and it coincided with Underworld’s appearance at All Points West Music & Arts Festival at Liberty State Park (which I didn’t get to).
The majority of the work in Beautiful Burnout is photography — blissfully mundane imagery that, much like Underworld’s music, locates pleasure in industrial materials, repetition, rhythmic rigor, and occasional bursts of vibrancy. I was informed that, of the images below (just a portion of the overall exhibit), the black and white shots were more likely to have been accomplished by Underworld’s Karl Hyde, and the color (along with the more in-focus black and white) by the band’s Rick Smith. Various permanent wall-art images, not pictured here, were attributed to John Warwicker, co-founder of Tomato and creative director of Underworld.
Also running on various walls were video shorts by Graham Wood, including this sequence:
More info on the exhibit at jacobsonhoward.com, and at tomato.co.uk, where official images of the Artjam in progress have been posted.
PS: The framed text above (“In Tenebrismoke Curling…”) is by Artjam participant Richard Schwamb. Other artists involved in the installation included Laura Schwamb, Naomi Trotsky, and Toru Yoshikawa.