When the group had decided on colour (fully with my support, I in know way mean to suggest I didn’t have my part in deciding this) I was initially at a loss as to how to approach the stimulus. I had considered going the route that Steve suggested and ended up going with by using frequencies that correspond to specific frequencies of colours, however I felt that, given I was unhappy with the previous projects outcome, I should attempt to use speech in some form and approach it like an audio drama.
Simultaneously I was also coming to terms with a recent LSD trip. Unsurprisingly it was a very strange experience that required a lot of time to process, I’m still processing it I think. One of the things that came up during the trip was this idea of shadows in a purple light, it didn’t take long before I could both achieve some kind of catharsis and create a work for my studies. My approach to audio drama is:
write>note sounds needed>cast>edit lines and create sound effects> pull everything in to one edit
This time around though I felt there was a sense of urgency to getting the actual words recorded, the memory of the trip was, like a dream, fading fast and so I recorded the account first, later editing out the ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’ both for ease of listening and also to keep the piece within the 5 minute time constraint. I then, in audition, set markers where I felt certain sounds would be appropriate. This way of doing things was much easier, and I would love to use it in my usual practice, however the sheer number of sound effects needed makes this impractical. I then went through my, as mentioned in a previous blog post, wide array of sounds from previous experiments, there was a few ended up having to design myself as my experiments didn’t fully ‘fit the bill’ so to speak.
Once I had the constant drones, ambiences and sound effects it was a relatively simple process of making sure everything came in and left, faded in and out and was balanced to a degree that I was happy with. There were a few things I considered changing, for example having my words heard perfectly clearly throughout, but I felt that, in order to emulate the overwhelming nature of the trip, there needed to be elements which were heard to parse. I also briefly thought about taking out my words all together and just having the story be vague and unguided by my words, but at the behest of my audio drama colleagues I left it in. I wonder though, had I asked someone who wasn’t based in the same sound culture as me, if I would have received the same response.
I had a few influences (direct and otherwise) in this project, to list a few:
- The sampling techniques, spatial elements and what I cant describe further than the ‘vibe’ of Matmos in their album, ‘plastic anniversary’
- The use of strange noises and slightly foreign and alien nature used by Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury in the track ‘Alien’ from Annihilation 2018)
- The track ‘Bias’ by Floating Points, with it simple but also quite detailed consistent rhytm
- The work of Reggie Watts, while not directly influencing this piece, it helped to explore possibilities of using voice and loops to create a more rhythmic and human feeling piece, ultimately something I decided didn’t feel appropriate
Overall I feel the piece fits nicely with the others, we all were in some way influenced by colour and the way it exists in our lives, I took on the task of ordering the pieces for this album we were presenting, I felt that one way to approach it would be to order it based on colour gradients a sa start and then swapping things around to make sure it flowed nicely. The group felt that i would be good to alternate, spoken and non-spoken pieces for a better flow and Buki felt that her piece should go last, which made sense to me as it would act as a way for the listener to wind down after what is ostensibly a rollercoaster of emotions ,meaning the listening order would be:
- Black, by Yusuf Mahmood
- The Shadow in the Purple, by Cai Gwilym Pritchard
- Blue Rose, by Stuart Peaty
- Contest of Red and Yellow, by James Brown
- Traffic lights, by Steve Stonhold
- Guided Meditation, by Buki Bayode