MOLLY PLANET

Magnet Bay Farm

2012-01-14T00:48:00.000-08:00

Magnet Bay Farm is about fifteen minutes drive from Little River in Banks Peninsula, Aotearoa/New Zealand. I have stayed there three times in the last nine months and have grown to love the place.

My initial two visits were in order to rehearse for a national tour with the show Voices of our Ancestors - an exploration by three Ngai Tahu women, through story, sound and song, of histories both family and tribal. As we all lived in different parts of the country, it seemed fitting to come together for rehearsals on Ngai Tahu soil. We all shared ancestral linkages with Wairewa marae, and so it was a great privilege to be able to base at Magnet Bay Farm, which had recently been regifted back to Wairewa marae by farmer Jim Wright.

I wasn't very well on the first stay, and so wasn't up for a walk down the farm, but Mahina and Ariana went and came back very excited about the assortment of farm equipment (read here as 'sound-making objects').

The next time we visited, I was able to go for the walk - and certainly wasn't disappointed!! Fifty metres from the house it begins - yards and yards of farm equipment in various stages of repair - wire cages, sheds galore, a sheep transport trailer, 44 gallon drums, pots, old tractor, hap makers, a saw mill...it really iwas like heaven! That afternoon we walked from pile to pile and hit, scraped, and jumped on things. The next day I went back with an H2 zoom and over the course of a few hours recorded as many of the items as I could.


Mahina kicking a wee drum


Ariana with a metal sheet

Over a period of time I want to archive the sounds and explore them in combinations. I can't help feeling there is a piece of music to be made on-site. Robin and Ngaire, who now manage the farm on behalf of the marae, have certainly indicated there are stories to be told, and they are keen that Jim not be forgotten.

Here is the first sketch-combination of some of the sounds on Magnet Bay Farm.

The Orator sounds....

2011-10-22T01:00:00.000-07:00

a week ago Hinemoana and i went to see The Orator (O Le Tulafale) by Tusi Tamasese. There has been a lot of buzz about this film and we were really keen to see it because of this but also because the sound design and music had been done by Tim Prebble. I follow Tim - he is one of the few twittery tweeters who's tweets come direct to my phone so i get to see his day to day thoughts and workings on sound design and whatever else is of interest to him. Tim is an amazing blogger - his site Music of Sound is posted regularly and contains all things sound from the internet that are of interest to him, and as if he hasn't got enough to do, he has created a new site Music for films. Tim has done sound design in numerous films - most recent examples include Boy and Home by Christmas. From what I've seen of him through his work and writings, he has a minimalist aesthetic, a high attention to detail, a love of a wide range music and sound.

In much the same way that i delighted in following blog snippets during the making of the Radiohead album In Rainbows before savouring the final product, i was able to follow Tim's bloggings about his field recordings for the film so it gave me an added bonus feeling of having been there in just a small way in the creative process leading up to the finished product.

because of all this, i was determined to pay special attention to sound design aspects of the film - this could be detrimental to the viewing of a film but i decided to trust that the story would hold up even though i was viewing with one eye on the story and one on the sound so to speak.

i really enjoyed this viewing approach and it didnt take away from the experience at all - The Orator is a strong story which is beautiful in every aspect - visually, in sound/story and acting.

i won't say too much about the story itself except to say that it addresses some powerful themes around relationship estrangement, forgiveness, courage, vulnerability, isolation (physical/psychological) stubborness, ritual and more besides. it is a film that stays with you in that it is multi-layered. hinemoana and i had a lengthy conversation all the way home about different aspects of the film. i highly recommend it.

i am not a film reviewer by any means but wanted to note the various sound design elements that were a highlight for me - this is also a week later so they will obviously be the ones that have really stuck!

Atmosphere - because of my concentrated listening i gained a lot more appreciation of the role of general sound background in creating a sense of place and atmosphere. these were numerous and included the sounds of wildlife - both near and distant...in fact the distant sounds (dogs, chickens) added to the sense of separation that was experienced by the main protagonists as they were, either through choice or in punishment, banished from normal village life. the echoing animals added to this sense of distance and detachment from normal village life.
Voices - this same effect was created many times by the use of distant and off-camera voices which either taunted the main characters or provided another contrasting joyful and communal sound to contrast the isolation they were experiencing. it was a fabulous tool in that often we would hear these off camera voices but wouldn't see them. this added to the sense of disconnection and loneliness and we got to experience it too.
Change of shot = change of sound (sometimes) - this is kind of obvious but the realisation of the attention to detail required in every shot came through very early in the film. There was a very dstinctive shot which was upward looking through holes in large leaves through to the sky. from memory the sound was that of general landscape (air, animals, wind etc) - what was interesting was that the next shot was of the dirt and the sound changed right at edit point to reflect this....it really was like if you're standing in a bush and then you duck down, the sound of the atmosphere becomes muted and the bass frequencies more prominent.
multiple places interelated - one of my favourite sound design elements was in a climactic part of the movie. a lot of powerful elements were coming together in the thought processes of multiple characters, so the edits were moving more quickly between them - from Saili cutting yam plants to his wife Vaaiga who rapidly declining in health, to shots of the Ifoga (offending party seeking forgiveness). the sounds used reflected what was happening on screen but were used against different visuals - eg. from memory the sounds of the machete cutting came in early before the actual shot and maybe against images of the Ifoga or Vaaiga's face....conversely Vaaiga's laboured breathing appeared over shots of Saili thinking. this was a powerful device for me as it served to link together metaphorically the destinies of the characters and illustrated that whatever decisions they were making or processes they were going through were each going to affect them relative to each other and as a community.
sound to emphasise dialogue - another scene that captivated me sound-wise was when Vaaiga is reprimanding her daughter...she says 'my words are going be emblazoned on your mind' or something to that effect. as she says this the sound of distant dogs barking appears which, to my mind, emphasised the 'doggedness' of Vaaiga's determination that her daughter should never forget this reprimand...in the way that dogs barking in the distance can be a form of aural torture - so were these words going to be. at the same time another processed sound appeared that reminded me of a distant choir of altered voices.
soundtrack - i didn't realise til the conclusion of the movie that Tim was responsible although i should have been able to tell from the subtlety of it...i can't remember what the source material of the score was and i think this is a good thing - Tim has put up excerpts of it for us to listen to or download here. i have chosen not to listen to it while writing this as my response here is based on memory. whatever the sound source was - the remarkable thing about the score is that there was no discernible melody - in fact the score could almost have been linked with the sound design...it seemed to be mixed in with it - not separate from or out front of but a sound design device itself.

this was truly a stunning film, exquisitely paced - slowed down to the speed of life you could say...immersive, restrained and powerful.

thanks too Tim for sharing your skills and experiences with us.

sCratchings aND duMpiNgs

2011-10-13T11:13:00.000-07:00

i have woken in the small hours of morning to another itch-fest and thoughts about the oil spill in the Bay of Plenty...my cat is expecting an early feed and is staring at me wide-eyed around the corners of the table.

i woke as per usual these past four months only this time four hours after going to sleep, not two - and this time decided to try and curb the incessant itching by reading so i grabbed an old favourite from the shelf "Original Blessing" by Matthew Fox and mentally chose a page number - 96.

"...King Yahweh preserves creation and sustains it by being a just king. Justice preserves creation and makes it thrive and blossom in ever fertile ways...

Say among the nations, 'Yahweh is King...Firm has he made the world, and unshakeable; he will judge each nation with strict justice. Let the heavens be glad, let the earth rejoice. Let the sea thunder and all that it holds...(Psalm 96:10)

...God, Creator and King, has entrusted humans the needs of the creation and its preservation.....It was the work of the prophets to constantl confront the kings when they failed - as they so often did - at carrying on creation by way of preservation and justice-making"

(Original Blessing pages 96 and 97)

once again i am challenged at my lack of outrage given the events of the spill - my cat's eyes are still imploring me for food but he has resigned himself to more of a sit-in/occupation response!

i have often been slow towards verbal outrage and often even the feelings of outrage - it must be in some ways a form of my phlegmatic nature - whilst slow to anger it is certainly deeply felt when it arises.

the oil spill is a gutting and tragic event there can be no doubt - i am fortunate in that i am currently not on the beach staring at the waves of black coming in. my partners father lives in Matata so i have grown to love the wildness of that beach - the particular way in which the great swelling waves come right up to shore and then dump suddenly downwards - it is a difficult sea to get out in for a swim as it is a short trajectory from standing on the shore to being in the deep water. Hamu the dog has spent many an afternoon pacing the beach and barking in concern for his dad's safety. Val is a diver and we have gone across the bar with him - he talks about the country down there - it is most probably his first home and the house he lives in his second...

so to think of that whole area covered in black slick is gutting.

in the quiet of the night when my mind races as fast as my skin irritates me, i have had many thoughts about what i feel and think about the tragedy and if i can regrasp some of those thoughts they will appear here in a somewhat stream of consciousness form i'm sure...

like it or not, we have all benefited and live in a world that has been driven by fossil fuels - the navy boats that have been sent to assist in the oil salvage operations have been powered by oil to get to their destination alongside the Rena. Hinemoana's friend who works in the assessment of possible oil drilling sites has on occaision reminded her that the scope of the oil industry is far greater than what we immediately perceive...did he say it even relates to computing and other modern technologies - did i get that right?

my cat has just chirped at me - he thinks i'm getting up - i'm just changing position...he feigns disinterest 'i'm just cleaning myself here...nearby....very near...with one eye on the bowl'...

it does now seem like a very antiquated way of transporting goods - now that we see it in all it's glory...some very run-down looking over-sized barge overladen with huge containers - it all looks very precarious now that it is on a 6 degree, 11 degree, 22 degree list...

in a curious way, it has made me mindful of all the tonnes and tonnes of goods that have made its way in and out of the country for days and weeks and months and years...it reminds me of when my flatmate Fe used to give thanks for our food and she would bless the truck-drivers and the people who grew the food etc...sometimes these disasters, while dotting our newspapers frequently, remind me of the many myriads of ways that humans make things and make things happen and build things and move things and fix things and deliver things and transport things without incident...it makes me thankful on a level for the creativity and resourcefulness of humans....but yes, there is that thing about justice and co-operating with the earth...a town that has built itself economically on the back of its port is now in shock that it too can suffer at the hands of industry much as it has witnessed overseas - we are not immune...how about those All Blacks.

my cat has now repositioned himself so that his body is full on facing in the direction of the mecca bowl...

i have had to relent and feed him as i needed a toilet stop and he was just going to meow and protest and create havoc...so i have silenced him with food.

my own microcosmic universe has been having its own toxic dumping - four months of being over-run with eczema - a benign sounding but rather unpleasant affliction and one which the health books and Chinese/Indian philosophies say is the result of too much taxing of the cleansing organs. with nowhere to go and being clogged with more than they can handle, they have unceremoniously dumped toxins out through the skin and like shoreline slavage it clears and reappears and clears and reappears...

at times like this we are forced in a way to consider what our life has been like and what it will be like from here on in...this is difficult enough as an individual to think about - what am i willing to change to make my life better in the future?..it is a massive undertaking for a global community especially one where it seems that the ones affected least are often the ones holding the cards...but we all get to decide how we can be stewards of the planet, of how we can move towards tino rangatiratanga and co-creation with the planet...i have no doubt that a newer, better way will be found...its a matter of when and how much it will be reactionary and desparate last measures...

through my experimentations with eating raw - i'm well aware that it is easier to make such a change when it is thought of as expansion, as adding to a pleasurable life - rather than taking away...it's pretty hard to make drastic changes cold-turkey unless the stakes are high sometimes - though i have read of some people for whom going raw became a natural transition and one that felt better than what was previously lived.

wouldn't it be nice if we found new ways of harnessing energy that felt expansive and beneficial and exciting and not merely a knee-jerk reaction to catastrophe...humans need a good bit of catastrophe sometimes - it humbles us and reminds us of our place and gives us renewed vision.

i am grateful for the ways in which the body can rejuvenate (and i'm counting on it!), i'm grateful for the ways in which the earth rebalances and corrects itself...i'm so sorry for all the birds and fish that have suffered from this tragedy and from the fallout of our activities...i'm grateful that the earth is the supreme self-healer.

the kaumatua says there was too much hui and not enough do-ey...quite possibly

i feel a little weary now and i'm sure i had some amazing thoughts in the dead of night that i can't quite access now...another time another time...

"see them mining for that precious black gold
it burns with desire and leaves a mark on your soul
see them drilling without asking why
pretty soon we'll see those toxins fly...

and you - why won't you tell me what makes you happy
why do we have to dredge it up until we're left with nothing".

(from song Easy composed by CW)

'spaghetti and meatballs'

2011-09-04T19:03:00.000-07:00

ok - so the raging debate in our household is whether raw food recipes (which are pretty much vegetarian) should give themselves names from the 'meat or cooked food world'. actually it's not really a raging debate - i am clearly in the minority - the other two believe these recipes should drop the 'trying-to-be-like-something-they're-not' and sell themselves for what they really are - delicious food from raw fruit/veges...i guess it's kinda like the-artist-formerly-known-as....scenario.

i'm ok with the old names - it makes me feel somewhat 'normal' and if i have a hankering for some old taste or texture then the recipe names give me something to go on...and there's only so many times you can say mushroom/onion/carrot/celery/nut mixture formed into delicious patties and dehydrated!

hence tonight's dinner - spaghetti and meatballs from the rawmazing blog

i tell you - the artist formally known as 'meatballs' are amazing!!

we'll see what rating the household give this dish....

rAw....the relevance of iTchy skiN in a sOund blOg

2011-09-04T02:48:00.000-07:00

so for the second time in the last 7 years, i've had a major outbreak of eczema - major because it has been both sudden and widespread. i had eczema as a kid and patches of it in adult life (nothing i wasn't used to) but 6 years ago, after working myself to the ground and contracting a virus, the eczema appeared and spread right over my body - after trying to treat naturally, i ended up in hospital with skin wraps and potassium baths, and emerged like i'd been in a beauty parlour.

this time, the occurence was quick and fairly widespread, and, although i've had ten days of the steroid prednizone, i'm more determined and, i think, more able to succesfully treat it naturally.

this time, i'm reminded that this may not be a one-off scenario, but something i need to pay attention to - my health is now more precious to me and something i want to proactively nurture.

eczema for me is more than itchy skin - as Hinemoana's friend Kate said 'there is nobility in rising above pain, but not much nobility in rising above itching'...but, having this severity a second time around, i'm aware of all that it is - a chronic feeling of unwellness, soreness, low energy, cold, vulnerability to weather and temperature - at the moment i function best between 10am and 8pm...sleeplessness (my partner is currently sleeping in the next room to escape the night scratches (and dreaming about running off with David Bowie so i really do need to get a handle on the eczema fast!)

but now i also want to see the eczema as a gift - and particularly this time around, it seems that every inclination i've had towards healing has been intuited and then confirmed by my readings/learnings. i am grateful to the people who have documented their journeys and learnings and so feel it is my time to do the same - to be more open about my goings on.

this blog was intended as a sound blog and it will continue to be one, but it will incorporate other areas of interest that have remained hidden for fear that i may be a hippie-new-age freak.

the first learnings when i entered the new zealand school of music to study sonic art was the reminder that sound is vibration - pretty much at the same time i started this study i was interoduced to the teachings of the law of attraction mainly through abraham-hicks. this teaching starts with the premise that we are vibrational beings.

at music school, i became enamoured with the contact mic - a device that amplifies vibration and converts to sound. i have just purchased 2 contact mics and a hydrophone from jez riley french. yahoody.

and of course, eastern thinking identifies the beginiings of dis-ease on a vibrational level - so raw food/raw sound fits in my book.

here is an abraham clip - not the one i was looking for but along the lines...

and yes...i can identify quite a few months of conflicted, out of alignment, negative vibrational thinking that brought me here...

so now the healing begins - in this sense the eczema is a gift - to show where i was vibrationally out of whack and out of alignment with myself.

one of the areas i was out of alignment was in the area of eating - and when the eczema hit, it was the first thing that my attention came to for change - firstly because i largely lost my appetite straight away...

around about this time, i found these guys...matthew armstrong and victoria whitehead and their 100 day juice feast...

i stumbled on these guys because i was interested in the james arthur ray trial and was googling all over town - they happened to include a post where they commented on the trial - i followed them every day after. so i found them on day 23 of their feast - they are now on day 94...i spent the next 2 weeks predominantly juicing - this worked because my appetite was largely gone anyway - my body's way of telling me that i was detoxifying and needed to help my body do this.

i decided pretty quickly i needed to go off gluten and dairy.

my first readings led me to consider the alkaline diet - overly acidic foods lead to an acidic pH and the need for rebalancing...alkaline foods are predominantly leafy green vegetables so my juices became greener and more bitter - i also added wheat-grass powder.

around the same time, hinemoana's cousin anahera, leant me the following book....

this book looks at the eastern view of dis-ease. according to this view eczema is caused by the stagnation or over-toxicity of the liver and with it's inability to detox, the skin steps in and becomes a huge detoxifying agent...this condition is also referred to as the heating of the system and so recommends cooling foods - again, the primary ones being leafy green veges and raw food...

in the middle of this, my eczema got worse and one morning i woke with skin that made me feel like i was a burns victim and was weeping - i was also mentally and emotionally feeling more despondent and vulnerable and was concerned about infection (which happened the first time) - so i took myself to a doctor...the result - a one week course of prednizone followed by 7 days of decreasing dose for weaning off...i felt immediate relief and the skin cleared but after the first three days could still feel the eczema in the system - i knew it was being suppressed and would reappear once the course ended - still i was grateful for the relief and, in a way hoped that it would be sufficient to knock it back for good. this wasn't to be and i continued in my research.

i researched other sites of people who have healed from eczema, and overwhelmingly, the sites i found talked about slow, systematic healing and strengthening of the digestive system throug the eating of raw food.

so after much thought, i have decided to go raw...

one thing about this choice is that i want it to be more about moving toward health rather than deprivation - so my intention is to be raw as much as possible but not to slam myself if i deviate...this is a lifestyle change i want to make long-term so even if eventually i am 70-30% that will be better than what i was - for now though i want to give my liver and system a chance to rebalance.

gluten and dairy are definitely off though and i have noticed massive differences particularly in now having clear sinuses.

hinemoana and marian have been supportive and are enjoying (or not) some new recipes...i have to say raw food isn't what it sounds like - there are some amazing flavour combinations...it is taking some rethinking re: shopping and preparation but i will get there...will post some of the good recipes here...

if i was in new york i'd definitely be visitn the restaurant pure food and wine

so that is me - it's all about vibration and energy at the end of the day...raw food/raw sound.

it's not been a great skin day today, but with contact mics and recipes in hand i'll keep you posted.

anD i wenT to tHis poeT / fillinG puffs

2010-10-16T03:01:00.000-07:00

two more improvisations using pre-recorded excerpts of songs/pieces/field recordings.

this is continuing play from last time. as i remarked to marian, maybe they are more 'significant' in the making of them than to the listener, as i have the history of the making of the songs / recordings etched in my physical/aural memory whereas a first-time listener is receiving them as they are - a new 'meaningless' whole.

the first track also includes portions of vaitoa's latest piece 'the land of fun-ness'.

AnD i wEnt to thIs poeT2 by christinewhite

i have been listening to hinemoana's sketches from her 'work in progress' presentation in iowa. she has also been experimenting with the recontextualising of text and sound recordings and inviting the listener to consider the sounds of words over their meaning. you can listen to them here.

it seems that we are experimenting in similar areas - albeit from opposite sides of the world.

i still have some difficulty with wondering how the work i'm doing would be received - or, how to present it in such a way that it isn't just jumble. i mean anyone can randomly put things together can't they? as john cage once said in response to "anyone could do this work"....'yeah, but they don't'.

what makes this kind of improvisation (or any improvisation for that matter) good? we can all appreciate a guitar solo - in some ways because of the skill of the player, and because our ears have been trained to appreciate the licks, the references being made in a solo that draws on years of the foundations for blues, jazz and rock.

how do we integrate improvisations such as these sketches i have here? well - i'm gonna continue to go with the theory that, in the space of a performance, where song snippets are introduced and then re-introduced, the listener can feel that they are on the same journey.

fillinG puffs includes snippets from my two minute sketch songs - powder puff and filling up.

FillinG puFfs by christinewhite

sexy appliances includes powder puff, filling up and casio from vaitoa's piece 'the land of fun-ness'

Sexy appliAnces by christinewhite

and...some photos just coz we like pretty pictures :)

fiL...l1nG uP the {drEamy} heaTer

2010-10-11T16:54:00.000-07:00

today i have continued orienting myself in gleetchlab for the purpose of learning how to improvise with recordings.

i'm looking for a new way of making music that feels ignites me. this is taking the form, so far, of a combination of song sketches (2 minute improvised 'songs'), field recordings and sounds from the workbench instrument. i have a sense that, if i were to offer music in a live performance context, i want to combine these in a greater 'arc' of story/song/sound.

i was inspired by a jane siberry concert hinemoana and i went to - in fact - we were able to go to two within a week which was great because we were able to see the extent to which she drew on her song/story material in different ways to create a 'greater whole' - a large story which was 'the concert' and was comprised of the smaller stories we could call 'her songs'.

i haven't known what these 2 minute sketch songs have been about apart from feeling like a case of writer's block ("what - you can't even stay the distance to finish a whole song anymore"?). but now i have a sense of wanting to play with them like cogs of a wheel - sticking different parts together to see how they work.

this what today's play has been about - i have used a guitar improvisation, a recording of the heater, and components of the two minute sketch called filling up.

i look forward to combining more than one song to see what eventuates - i just need to prepare the separate tracks.

for now i have these sketch examples:

1210 fillup sketch1 by christinewhite

ps. these were crudely recorded back through the speakers, still haven't refined this part of the process. good though as the birds decided to join in with this one.

1210 fillup sketch2 by christinewhite

1210 fillup sketch3 by christinewhite

sounds from my neighbourhood - the water tower

2010-10-01T00:44:00.000-07:00

the water tower is on a hill at the back of a reserve behind our house. it's pretty much completely made of concrete but i took a contact mic to see what i could find.

pipe

a series of pipes run around the perimetre of the tower. i chose one and began tapping it - it has amazing overtones and a long sustain. the pipe itself doesn't make any sound, it's only when it's activated you get to hear the sounds travelling through it.

the first sound is from me scraping the outside of the pipe with my hands.

Pipe 2 by christinewhite

this sound is from circling the inside of the pipe with a stick.

Pipe 3 by christinewhite

steel casing

further around the water tower was the main stairwell to the top. at the base of the stair structure was a metal guard with a steel box mounted on it housing a padlock.

i had a lot of fun with this structure, running the back of a cello bow over it.

Steel box by christinewhite

i also placed the box inside the cavity of the box casing and moved it over the surface. this created a breath-like timbre with tonal changes.

Inside steel box by christinewhite

i was also able to pull a metal sheet around the casing which reverberated through it. this recording is complete with text message (DM tweet) from my partner Hinemoana in the wild west of wyoming.

Rattling the steel by christinewhite

when flames become music...

2010-09-26T01:30:00.000-07:00

ok...so i'm using a title here which references steve roden's airform archives (one of my favourite sites).

today i decided to continue with the original heater recording - to explore the recording further as visual artists do with sketches - different angles, colours, materials.

which lead me to thinking about graphic score, in particular the meshing of what we see with what we hear. this was fuelled in part by the photographic scores of jez riley french and the recent writings of steve roden, particularly his post when sounds become drawings

i have been wanting to familiarise myself a bit more with the gleetchlab programme i have. gleetchlab allows realtime processing of sound. i decided to have a play with some of the DSPs available in gleetchlab and started with spectrfilter.

spectrafilter is a 128 band eq. using the flame photo as a graphic score, i manipulated the spectra by attempting to simulate graphically the shape of the flames in the photo. the result was as follows:

and the sound result...

Heater132 spectrafilter by christinewhite

next i decided to play with the mephisto which is described as a 'step sequenced delay with down sample'. once again i chose the parameters based on a visual comparison with the flame photo.

the sound result is as follows:

Heater132 mephisto by christinewhite

i was on a fun roll by now so next i loaded another heater recording and eq'd it again according to the graphic. this time i was able to have two heater recordings with flat eq and one with flame-eq - this replicated the flame and the gold bars of the heater.

ok so i needed three gold bars on top and two on the bottom...i was having too much fun to check!

i added two more affects for fun - one was a reversing of this particular heater recording, and the other was a stutter affect. the stutter affect may have been overused - it had no direct graphical reference to the 'score' it was my intuitive addition and i told myself it reminded me of the crackings of a natural fire.

what remained was to choose what parameters were used when - and this was largely intuitive at this stage as i was getting my head around using the application. so here is a demo excerpt and the final screenshots. listening back now it prob needs some smoothing out on the ears - mixing not being my strong point...but it is a starting place for me in exploring place and sound and integrating them somehow.

way over in there heat(her) by christinewhite

house study 132 - heater

2010-09-25T03:43:00.000-07:00

having now moved from a bach-style cottage-on-a-hill to a modernised bungalow on the flat, i am beginning a series of sound studies for our new home...and it begins with the gas heater.

i actually became aware of some beautiful heater drones the day after World Listening Day (18 July 2010). my partner hinemoana's new poetry book 'koiwi koiwi' was launched on World Listening Day - it has some pretty amazing sound imagery coincidentally. you can find out more about it here.

anyways, i got pretty crook that night (not self inflicted no) and so the next morning was partially spent lying on the floor in the lounge recovering. in rest and stillness we can often hear sounds we otherwise wouldn't, and it was in this state that the heater came alive for me. it possibly was made all the more present because my head was resting on the wooden floor and so the drones of the heater travelled from the floor and in through the bones of my head.

on that particular day it was very calming.

so, with homemade contact mic in tow, i have now recorded the heater. my flatmate marian commented that it sounds like a whole haunted house is residing in there...we could hear metallic booms and banging that aren't always obvious in the living room or that otherwise sound like small creaks. i also particularly love the overtones when the fan is on.

i have added some eq to try and minimise the static sounds and tones which seem to be part and parcel of the homemade contact mic set-up i use.

some sounds are of me lifting the cover to turn on/off the fan or to turn the heater up. it's a right playground.

a whole world right there in the heater.

more sonic creatures....

2010-09-21T02:43:00.000-07:00

sonic creatures emerged from the subliminal minds and object-play of a group of volunteers (mainly guitar students). each person was asked to choose three objects that appealed to them for any particular reason. they were then to create sound combinations from these objects, which were recorded (and in some cases manipulated) to reveal a sonic creature. immediately after the object-play and before the final creature sound was revealed to them, the participants were asked to name and describe the creature.

these recordings are some more of the results...

Guotog

Pinikusball musicato

Sonico

Skefotappin

Blubba Bubba

for notes re: the development of the sonic creature idea read here

filling up - improvisational songwriting

2010-09-12T01:49:00.000-07:00

finally a stretch of time for some sound-making but what it was to be i didn't know....turned out to be another sketch-song. seems to be a bit of a project of mine - to create short songs as improvisationally as i can - as few recording takes as possible. the idea is to come up with something and to record without working out structure or nailing down the part.

this song ended up being just under two minutes long with three guitar parts and three vocals.

i am still sometimes a bit at odds with myself as to why i do these sketches. am i not brave enough or disciplined enough or clever enough to develop a 'piece of substance' ever again? at times i feel torn between music-making, song-writing and, now, sonic art or sound-making...so much to do so little time. if left to their own devices, these pulling thoughts can create havoc with the self esteem.

but there are other reasons to do these sketch-songs that are more about running towards than running away from something. they bring out a type of play which allows for synchronicities and for the working of subconscious which, i guess is what i need when feeling back at the beginnings of making.

Ross Bolleter

2010-09-09T15:21:00.000-07:00

whilst out one day catching up with myself and wandering through the tributaries of the internet, i happened upon Ross Bolleter and his ruined pianos. Marvellous!

I discovered Ross and the ruined pianos from the video post below (thanks to Everyday Listening):

the excerpt about Ross occurs at 3'30". once again it caught my eye because of the interplay between sound, music-making and site - the 'landscape' of the music-making object and its subjectiveness to time and environment. how this music-making is truly linked to the physical context it appears in - the extent and possibilities provided by nature's tunings and the responsiveness of the improviser to this. unique music-making from unique materials.

Each Ruined Piano is utterly unique with respect to action and tuning (if we can talk of tuning at all). An F# one and a half octaves above middle C on a West Australian Ruined Piano in a semi-desert environment differs radically from the same note on a flooded piano in a studio four floors below pavement level in Prague.

A Ruined Piano has its frame and cabinet more or less intact, (even though the soundboard is cracked wide open, with the blue sky shining through) so that it can be played in the ordinary way. By contrast, a Devastated Piano is usually played in a crouched or lying position.

A piano judiciously left in the open and exposed to all weathers will ruin. All that fine nineteenth-century European craftmanship, all the damp and unrequited loves of Schumann, Brahms and Chopin dry out, degrading to a heap of rotten wood and rusting wire. The piano returns to aboriginality, goes back to the earth where the chirrup of its loose wires blown about by the desert Easterly is almost indistinguishable from the cicadas’ long electric blurt.

However, it’s not necessary (or desirable) to burn, drown or bury a piano in order to ruin it. A Ruined Piano should ideally be an object trouvé – and be played as found.

ROSS BOLLETER from The Well Weathered Piano (WARPS Publications, 2005) as cited on Modisti

an excerpt from the album is found on the above link - i am getting this album! beautiful sounds.

long time no hear...

2010-07-03T00:20:00.000-07:00

well, it has been such an incredibly long time since i have appeared here - it was getting more difficult to do so - but here i am - if only to say hi and start again.

i moved house about a month ago which took me out of routine for a few weeks, but for some reason, this feeling of displacement, busyness-with-nothing-really-to-show-for-it, a feeling of over-emphasis on house/domestic/practical matters etc etc has just continued to elongate! i finally need to stomp it on the head and try and find some semblance of interest in the things i were interested in and involved with - if only to regain sanity!

and - so it seems - combining strange sounds and making little non-consequential movies still seems to reign. the movie below was the culmination of an improvised sound-play session combined with an attempt at small movie-making which combines my love of origami with my budget/material capabilities. hopefully this play and more like it will give formation to a larger piece - but for now this is it.

crude awakening

2010-05-07T23:03:00.000-07:00

this piece crude awakening was performed by chris black and myself in 2008 as part of our sonic arts studies at victoria university. the piece utilised radio static and a speaker chain whereby contact mics attached to speakers picked up sounds from speaker boxes and transmitted them to other set of speakers - this altered the sound as it traveled through the chain.

we also utilised contact mics picking up the sounds of guitar strings and wires being shaken and then further processed. we also placed a speaker against a shower bath, picking up this altered sound using additional contact mics on the bath. there was also an old operation game used.

a high point of the performance occured when chris sawed into a speaker - wot fun!

both chris and i loved the raw sounds generated using these materials. this was probably one of my favourite performances throughout the study period. i also thoroughly love working with chris. we did a larger version of this idea using the fixtures and fittings of the adam art gallery which i will post at some stage.

i wanna go home

2010-05-03T14:16:00.000-07:00

this is another intuitive composition by my guitar student Vaitoa. i continue to enjoy this process of immediate composition - and who better to explore this with than Vaitoa. Vaitoa had a play with slide guitar and recorded two parts one after the other. he then sang freestyle over the guitar parts - the resulting song was i wanna go home.

we then made a home movie separate from the song and then placed the song with the visuals. the video begins with an improvised dialogue which beautifully leads into the theme of the song.

sound of the day - blind wanderings

2010-04-26T03:42:00.000-07:00

well, i was sitting here listening to the backyard compositions of tristan and sebastian when i heard a backyard sound of my own - a kind of knocking and scraping that sounded like it was coming from the backdoor. it was a little unnerving actually as my mind went through all the possible known sounds of the house and tried to ascertain what it might be. the cat doesn't usually knock or scrape at the back door - no it's not him as he is right now staring at me through the front window. the only thing left was to investigate. upon opening the backdoor this is what i found

landscape as musical score - playing the backyard

2010-04-26T03:07:00.000-07:00

a fantastic project in line with my house study beginnings - this live improvisation by tristan louth-robins and sebastian tomczak using field recordings from their backyards. the material was processed in real-time using ableton live/plogue bidule.

more information about the work can be found on disquiet and tristan's blog. sebastian also has a blog here

dark

2010-04-24T21:14:00.000-07:00

this is an excerpt from one of the compositions i completed last year during my studies. it is composed from the recorded and processed sounds of chocolate factory machinery.

typhanee spotted in the u.s.a

2010-04-19T02:56:00.000-07:00

this drawing was sent by tim from buck creek, u.s.a in response to the sonic creature recording of the typhanee (see below). it was very exciting to receive this from the other side of the world via postcrossing. a very delightful animal and a great description. thanks tim.

Typhanee

2010-03-23T02:29:00.000-07:00

the continuing postings of sonic creatures. these are sound creatures which were made in collaboration with various people. they were asked to intuitively choose three objects and explore their combined sound-making potentials. the creatures were then named and described. i enjoyed this intuitive and organic way of working - some of the sounds were processed by me and i still question this intervention but it was how i felt at the time.

more can be read about the process that led to the sonic creatures here

i am looking forward to collecting more drawings of the creatures based on their sounds. so introducing the typhanee.

the typhanee was created by Caitlin. she used a wine glass with items inside and a spinning top. the resultant animal sounds include sound processing.

Flyus Crackius gallery

2010-03-23T02:13:00.001-07:00

the flyus crackius as interpreted by vaitoa - a whole storyboard in fact. i continue to marvel at the genius and creative playfulness of people like vaitoa. he has even added a new creature to complete the sonic wonderland - the beaver lizerd. it includes male and female iterations of the species, stray penguin, and what look like mangled fish.

rather excitedly, i played him the next creature - the typhanee - only for him to say, 'oh i know that one - that's a small mammal'.

you can listen to the flyus crackius here.

house study - deck

2010-03-11T22:24:00.001-08:00

introducing maverick the sonic wonder cat - otherwise known as mav the pav, mav the rick, mr fluffy trousers, mr F.T.Rousers, black and white guy...need i go on.

sonic explorations of the house continue with recordings from the deck. in keeping with the sonic recipes of The Domestic Soundscape, i include here the ingredients for this kind of sound-making:

1 deck
1 cat
2 guitar strings tied to the deck
1 bowling ball
several ping pong balls (to taste)
1 small rock
1 metal magazine rack
1 oven grill (of course)
2 contact mics
1 zoom recorder

we set about playing to explore the deck with the above materials...mav specialised in experimenting with the guitar string, i rolled the bowling ball around and bounced/rolled ping pong balls.

here are the results:

The Long Playing Version

deck play1

deck play2

house study - stairs

2010-03-07T17:35:00.001-08:00

this has been my most favourite house ever lived in. it is a quirky bach-cottage perched on a hill in the seaside village of paekakariki. we have been here four years but it is nearing time to move - we need somewhere a little more roomy and a little more modern - at least where the cold drafts don't come through in the winter-time, even though my old flameshell heater has done a stirling job up until now. there are many things i have loved about this house and i figured it was time to keep some of the sights and sounds of it in memory...beginning as one cannot help but do with the creaky stairs...

the stairs up lead to the one room on high which looks over the ocean vista. the stairs down (only two) lead to the front room. as with all stairs, there are the ever-present creaky steps...to be avoided when trying not to wake the sleepers! many a dark creaky-creep has been attempted...

the beginnings of my sound studies here are rough and ready as i get used to this process and getting the best recordings possible. home made contact mics through the M-box and maybe should have used line channel instead of mic as a lot of noise but maybe this is the nature of the grassroots approach...

anyhow - stairs 1

sketch

2010-03-07T00:39:00.001-08:00

Sound of the day

2010-02-22T01:46:00.001-08:00

...whilst on the treadmill at the gym i happened to catch live transmission of the landing of the shuttle...it's a distant memory now...but beautiful night footage - the appearance of a shape in the sky...the cockpit views of the approaching runway lights as touchdown immanent...why is it our ears can't retain memory the same way our eyes can - i can recall many versions of the visual - the graphite-type black and white sketch of night vision, the high definition lights against black, the glowing fire from off the tail...all i can now remember from the sound was the invigorating sense of a powerful drone and a flanging type affect of the sound...maybe i can find it on youtube to help me remember. i remember more the feeling the sound gave me than the sound itself...aaah yes here it is.

humans are so clever - sending mass machinery out into the nether regions of space and then guiding it back to a specific line of lights with pinpoint accuracy.

as i marveled at this i accidently hit the emergency stop button on the treadmill and cut short my run.

oh well.

you can believe in the sky

2010-02-15T16:04:00.000-08:00

this is an intuitive composition made by Vaitoa Mallon (7yrs). i love working with spontaneous, immediate composition - everything here was done on the fly...appearing for the first time in the course of the recording.

while listening back to this i made the drawing above using my non-dominant hand and with my eyes closed - a companion piece.

thank you Vaitoa for this wonderful piece and for your permission to share it here.

on finding the play in the everyday...

2010-02-08T01:03:00.000-08:00

i must admit - apart from serious delusional episondes of grandeur, i have always been drawn to the idea of play - of making games, adventures, tasks...finding beauty and opportunity to combine, connect, and create using the experiences, discoverings and happenings of the everyday.

my how this impulse can be flattened or worse, damaged - through the need to 'get a real life, a real job, a real *fill in the blank here*.

and yet somewhere down deep - this impulse has been calling...right now...having finished my honours year in sonic arts composition, and needing to regroup from the awesome input from that - as well as needing to earn a crust...i am finding once again these impulses surfacing as if a call to undertake a simple discipline - that of engaging with my everyday - no matter how repetitive or mundane it seems...

this impulse is definitely being fuelled by three blogs i have been following closely - the domestic soundscape, treasure hiding, and airform archives.

i am sure that as i engage with the little ideas that come to me...as i listen to these resonances and allow them to surface, i will find my own playful and creative voice and a place in the world as these above have done for me. thanks to them and the many others who inhabit the world in this way.

i was given a timely unlined book for my birthday - with pen in hand i drew this the next day...have recently been to the yayoi kusama exhibition in wellington so this may have informed the style - she was amazing!

baaaaaaa!

2010-02-03T12:09:00.000-08:00

this is raw field recording footage from our trip to banks peninsula last year. we visited the okains bay maori and colonial museum - a fascinating place which contained a vast array of maori and pakeha artifacts from colonial times...masses of items gathered in several rooms - arranged curiously in a cross between a museum and a crazed collector's shed. the wonderful array was spiced up by the fact that we felt as though we were miles from anywhere...near the sea... with a welcoming young host who played guitar at various points around the place...accompanied by the sheep who were hanging around in the field just near the back door of one of the gallery rooms....love rural new zealand.

the baa recordings are a gift for felicity of the domestic soundscape fame as she has a penchant for sheep.

musical cats

2010-02-02T01:04:00.000-08:00

aaah....the sing-song of hungry cats dueting with a swinging door - i have to say, i love the sounds of swinging gates and doors and so do, obviously, these cats. accompanied by jellicle-swing-thing pic because i can.

TILT #4

2010-01-29T23:57:00.001-08:00

Hinemoana gave me the TILT task some time ago of creating a self portrait...life has been hectic of late and the internal landscape has undergone some kind of upheaval...of the kind where, as with the weather, tidal changes and earth movements, it can be difficult to trace where it all began and then...one day, it all just as mysteriously reverts back to something recogniseable...

that hasn't quite happened here yet - but i took the opportunity to take a current snapshot of the self.

1. take paper - fold numerous times
2. take drawing apparatus and lay out
3. with eyes closed - draw
4. unfold the paper

the drawing was made to the sounds of the Tim Olive/Francisco Meirino album Eagle Keys. as i compile this i am listening to Phil Niblock Ghost and Others.

listening to...

2010-01-09T21:34:00.001-08:00

Tunguska by 833-45: music predominantly using short-wave radio signal. great sounds - i personally like the ambient, noise only tracks without the addition of beats but that seems to be me right now....

30mins later...

...having said that i do like Pools of Goliath...the rhythm/noise ratio sitting right - phenomenal powerhouse of noise and beat!

also...Green Field Recordings has launched its inaugural releases. Green Field Recordings is a Portugese netlabel which focuses on field recordings. the first two are MZ-N710 | Paysages Imaginaires 5 and François Emmanuel Fodéré | Hampi.

Sound of the day

2009-12-25T19:27:00.000-08:00

hiss spit shriek growl...the sounds made by poor bailee when we had a little misunderstanding concerning the time she needed to return to her cage. of note is that my memory of hearing these sounds are less clear given that all of my other senses were otherwise engaged in the wee tussle we had. something to do with memory - sound...memory of sound...maybe being more heightened the less involved one's other senses are...i can remember grappling, dodging...the movements...and the sounds are like a memory appendix. more clear are the sounds bailee made as i was carrying her - heeeech....

TILT #3

2009-11-28T17:57:00.000-08:00

make a location recording. later draw from memory the location/experience and use the image as graphic score to record further sounds. add to the location recording to complete the aural memory diary.

the field recording is of an old water pump that was sitting outside at the okains bay maori and colonial museum (banks peninsula, new zealand). hinemoana made the recording while i operated the pump (without water!). i then made the above drawing a week later and played it using electric guitar, knitting needle and ping pong ball. the result is old pump diary...

TILT #2

2009-11-15T15:07:00.000-08:00

16/11
create a constellation from stories, objects and observations from your week

TILT Explained

2009-11-02T14:36:00.000-08:00

TILT = The Incredible Little Thing or The Incredible Little Task

TILT is a creative process exercise which is carried into daily life for a week or so and then pops out in whatever form it does - drawing on the events, sights, sounds, smells of the world, people, events, dreams, impulses...

they are inspired by the desire to remain open to imagination, magic, unexpected serendipities - those gifts that burst through what otherwise may be a week of routine and predictability. they tune us deeper into what is around but may be missed.

they are inspired by others who have created space for the same magics to occur - like Learning to Love You More

i invite you to join me in a little TILT or two and would be love to add any of your creations here!

TILT #1

2009-11-02T01:07:00.000-08:00

answer the following questions using sounds, not words
1 what is it?
2 where does it live?
3 what is its favourite food?

this exercise became a short piece called requiem in paper and tape. it uses paper, tape, contact mic and feedback and was a first take effort for immediacy

Chocolate factory machines

2009-11-01T01:19:00.000-07:00

i have been collecting and composing with sounds from the Nyco Chocolate Factory in Kapiti. i have developed quite a fondness for the machines, which have names like Twiggy, R2D2, Tom, Bertha, and One Shot. The people are pretty good too.

Sound of the day

2009-11-01T01:14:00.000-07:00

1. the high pitched squeal of potato chips under the grill
2. the rolling of skateboard wheels from across a valley

Flyus Crackius

2009-10-25T13:05:00.000-07:00

as an extension to the creation of the sonic creatures, i am inviting people to provide visual sketch, photo, graphic of the creature based on the recordings. with your permission i will upload it here.

Flyus Crackius was created by Chaz Fitzgerald (CW recording/some processing).

also listen to the Flyus Crackius when it is agitated.

Sonic Creatures

2009-10-25T12:20:00.000-07:00

'...we are creating a new visible world that requires a fresh healing approach to the invisible world where lie the narratives that shape our lives...

...although the myths we are living are largely subterranean - we are not much aware of their influence or even their nature - we can glimpse them...

...the essence of religion is to see the sublime and the awesome in the lowliest of things...'
from Thomas Moore - Original Self

The following are journal note excerpts describe the process which lead to the formation of Sonic Creatures.

24/8

Fiona Hall's Force Field - what a fantastic exhibition - made me think again about bending sound - all those PVC pipes has me wishing that sound could be containered - that the boundaries were more concrete, perceivable, containable, defineable - wish sound could have an invisible field around it so that you could see or sense this containment. A parcel of sound....at the moment i hate how it dissipates and spreads. i want it in neat little containers like the subterranean beaded beings of Fiona Hall's.

31/8

creation of a world of 'subconscious sound species'

an idea that has emerged from my imaginings in that initial waking stage...a stage of consciousness which is characterised by openness, imagination, a sort of not-yet-remembering-who-i-am...the emerging time...a magical time when all those attachments that govern how we think, or are used to thinking are suspended and we allow newness to enter. this is a great time for an idea to emerge...particularly as the idea itself can discuss the subconscious or workings of the subconscious and play and the extinct or undiscovered or the subterranean or what is beneath....undiscovered...untapped untamed

the essence of the idea is to give people a series of exercises whereby the end result is that they create a creature using found materials and combining them to make a combination of sounds which will become the creature. There seem to be various steps involved which include:

identifying sound elements - i think it would be good for people to collect objects/surfaces based on what they gravitate towards (not for sound reasons)
explore sound properties of each and in combination
choose one or a few 'personality' sounds - distinctive sounds that are integral to the items - that link them and seem to stick
identify the creature and name it - give it a scientific name/description
capture the data - record sound/photograph or sculpt materials to form

'...according to an old tradition in both the east and the west, when a human being has crafted some object beautifully and properly, a spirit will be so enticed by it that it will take up residence in that thing...'
Thomas Moore - Original Self

Sound of the day

2009-10-23T15:38:00.000-07:00

ice dropped into a glass of blackcurrant juice and soda water makes beautiful muted clunkings and tappings

SoundTransit

2009-10-15T15:53:00.000-07:00

a fantastic site for the sound enthusiast and armchair traveller (like myself). i can explore the world a little each day in preparation for being there. I have added the floating walkway recording to the mix and will continue to share my sound discoveries along the way.

floating walkway

2009-10-11T23:18:00.000-07:00

one highlight of my trip to brisbane was the discovery of the floating walkway - an 870 metre walkway that floats on the river. as boats go past, the waves generated by them created movement on the walkway resulting in singing tones. This also combines with the footsteps of walkers, joggers, talkers and bird-life.

i recorded this environment using a lapel microphone which was inserted into a metal tube on the walkway.