How better to connect with, to express, the sonic automata that is the cicada than with a piece of equipment that plays by itself? The track “cicada.pch” takes its name from the insect whose collective, hoard-strengthened whirring is an inspiration to white-noise musicians. The sounds of “cicada.pch,” developed by frequent SoundCloud contributor Analogue01, aka Karl Fousek, barely touch on the familiar cicada noise. It is there more as background, a sheer static, than as focal material. In place of that sound is a loop of light rattling, elegant bits of microsonic percussion. According to a brief liner note, the piece was recorded as a “[s]elf-playing patch” on the Nord Modular G1. It is, in other words, a generative work, a system that emits sound, not unlike a small cloud of insectoid life.
https://soundcloud.com/analogue01/cicada-pch
Track originally posted for free download at soundcloud.com/analogue01. More from Fousek, who is based in Montreal, Canada, at karlfousek.com.
Here’s a remix (per artist’s permission) of cicada.pch and Music Box Tape Drone: https://soundcloud.com/l-a-j-1/small-sounds-remix-of-karl