Cai Gwilym Pritchard

VOICING UP

“Voicing Up – How women* artists of colour working in electronic music practice empowerment, survival and resistance.”

SoundCloud. (2018). VOICING UP. [online] Available at: https://soundcloud.com/shanti-suki-osman/voicing-up [Accessed 23 Nov. 2020].
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Attempting a response

Based on what it was that I liked about VOICING UP I decided to have a modulated voice speaking throughout the entire piece, it is actually a recording I did of myself talking about my anxieties and mental health, as I am (at the time of writing) waiting for a spot on the UAL counselling I decided to actually do something instead of waiting and letting my problems get worse, I used a Bitcrusher and a Vocal Modulator plugin to warp the voice to an extent that the words could be not fully understood, I could wax poetic about how this represents the tendencies of people affected by toxic masculinity to hide their inner emotions but ultimately that’s all it is, I am not in a position where I can just have people know my problems.

The first audio clip that plays over the speech is a recording I did of myself listening, post cry, to Giuseppe Verdi’s Il Trovatore, Anvil Chorus which you can hear slightly through my headphones. I could not begin to explain why I did this and in a way I find it quite humorous that this was my way of recovering, but the slightly tinny quality of the song itself as well as the room tone and my own human noises have quite a calming effect to me. In between this and the next recording there is a guitar with a delay pedal over which I think ended up creating some interesting slightly watery effects

The next recording is some contact mic recordings I did of the lamp on my desk, I thought the buzzing was very interesting and kind of represented to me the usually unlistened, both in terms of the fact that I needed a specific piece of equipment to hear this but also that parallels with the overall voice recording of my anxieties which I have never fully voiced before.

In further experimentation with a delay pedal I played Last Dime Blues by Blind Willie Mctell with a reverb before the delay pedal, this created quite an interesting and haunting effect. I think that I lose control of the pedal a bit too much and the sound is overall much to harsh, I think once I learn to use pedals and my mixer properly I will be able to create a sound that is less abrasive, that feeling doesn’t reflect how feel, I don’t harbour any aggression, my problems are a lot quieter.

The Final sound is another delay pedal experiment, there’s a certain sense of haunting laughter in this, like those of a cruel detractor, I’m not sure if I see much of myself in that sound, I think perhaps the frustration that inevitably comes up with things such as my anxieties and such, the total lack of helplessness I feel when I can do nothing but just, kind of, feel bad, I suppose it’s also a wider frustration at the poor mental health systems in this country, and how I, among countless others, have been failed.

Overall I feel quite good about this piece, I took what I liked about VOICING UP and made that the main part of it, I also in some way put myself into it, whether I achieved catharsis from this is a different matter but it felt good to use this recording I made in some productive way

Machine listening

Listening machines have not only a strange slightly ephemeral effect but also the materials used to create them have a real tangible detriment to the world, much like any technology there are benefits behind it however there are also detriments. Indeed machine listening can help detect heightened levels of aggression in public, predicting fights and public disturbances, however, these listening algorithms don’t come out of thin air , they are coded by people, people with unconscious (or perhaps even conscious)

How do we resist?, it has been made where you have to be surveilled in order to participate in society, we must develop a more critical technopolitics.

Liquid Architecture

Formed in the late 90’s, cross disciplinary practice, showcase for the work of students. 

Eavesdropping project

The word eavesdropping holds law and listening together in an interesting way, what can the history of eavesdropping tell us about the practice today? How does it relate to a post Edward Snowden world? Are we not being listened to now more than ever before, Technology has linked listening to power, control, governance…

Manus Project

one of the men on Manus made a sound recording and sent it ‘onshore’ for swift upload to the gallery. By the exhibition’s end, there were eighty-four recordings in total, each ten minutes long. The result is an archive of fourteen hours.

This led to the creation of the podcast “the messenger”

They were able to sneak in zoom recorders and phone data which could be uploaded via dropbox.

No narrative, no retelling, simply listening to them

“To make audible what was previously inaudible”

In this work, Electric Indigo creates complex sonic structures composed of very small acoustic entities. These structures live on friction, cohesion and constant movement.

SoundCloud. (2015). 109.47 degrees – excerpt. [online] Available at: https://soundcloud.com/indigo/10947-degrees-excerpt [Accessed 12 Nov. 2020].
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Upon my first listen through of 109.47 degrees I had initially registered it as quite a simple composition, something that wouldn’t be too difficult to emulate in some form. The transition between different segments of the song could be done easily with a fade and with the right plugins I could recreate some of the effects I had heard, particularly the wet clicking and tapping at around the 46 second mark, I had come across sounds like that when using delay plugins like Hysteresis. However, upon listening even more closely there is an almost cinematic quality in the scope of the environment created by Electric Indigo, and while there is a musical quality to some elements it feels as if that is not the point, these are soundscapes for an environment that doesn’t and could not feasibly exist, there are no clearly recognisable sound sources, there are moments where the mind will link a sound to something it knows, for example as the piece fades out from 2:40 onwards there is what I interpreted as the beating of helicopter blades, not that I think that’s what they are or are meant to be but that is how I initially registered them in my subconscious, without even considering at first. I imagine that would be the sonic equivalent of seeing faces in gnarled trees or burnt toast, we seek out patterns and the recognisable in that which is chaotic and unrecognisable. I think, then, that is why this piece is so interesting, by its nature it fosters input from the listener, they will bring themselves into it, and while this is true for all art it is the quality of possibility and the fact that there are no concrete sound sources but only suggestions of sources that really encourages that kind of speculation.

Attempting a response

I did quite a few things for this response, I used a plugin called Palindrome, which is a “granular morph sampler” by glitchmachines which will take four samples and cycle between them with lots of options for morphing the sound and such. I took some sounds of birds and large cats and used them as the base, I then shuffled through a few patterns and morph settings until I got what I was happy with. I also used a synth which I added some reverb to for a sense of extra atmosphere. I used Trash 2 and Hysteresis on the sounds of some water, working essentially in the opposite direction of the watery sounds in 109.47 degrees by taking these sounds and making them less like water instead of making sounds more like water. Overall I think it worked quite well, there is a certain element of closeness that 109.47 degrees has that I feel this response does not however overall the qualities of the sounds besides that are quite similar, especially when done in (what I assume to be) such a different way

https://vimeo.com/284811357

An Idea, a more a question really, from John Cage is what would you say if while presenting your sound work, something else was at least partly audible? It’s an interesting Idea, I think, much like with the idea of the ‘Death of the Author’ once you have created the piece, your intentions, both artistically and how you wish it to be perceived is out of your control, it is entirely unavoidable that the listening experience would be less than ideal. Speaking from my own desires I would love for every listener of my podcast to listen in a silent room with high quality headphones with no distractions, but this is a ridiculous idea, people have lives and things to do, not everyone can access these resources and podcasts are famously listened to on car journeys and during housework. So I can just hope that what I have made is good despite this, that no matter the framing the listener will enjoy what I have made, even if they miss out minute details in the ambience or mishear a line or get distracted for some reason or another.

Sonic Loophole Generator and Disco LED Hack

For me these two pieces represent something that I believe not only about sound but also about art in general, they embody the idea that anyone can do art, and no matter the tools or equipment everyone can and should. To start off with the disco led hack is such an exciting experiment and it truly shows that sound art exists everywhere and that even if unheard for a majority of the time, all it takes is for it to be listened to in the right way. I find this idea of the simplest things emitting some kind of performance, even if unintentional from the creator of, say, the LED so incredibly beautiful. It helps break down this idea that art is some kind of impenetrable force that only a select few can do, of course there’s a baseline level of privilege needed, but anyone with the passion for it can do it. It begins to feel quite overwhelming really, how does one approach doing a piece when there are no limits? Does one have to impose their own restrictions to work around? Or does it, as usual, fall onto the limits brought on by capitalism (eg. access to materials and equipment)

A lot can be learned about the values of capitalist culture by critically investigating the materiality of the machines, processes and practices of technology that consumer society throws away.

Darsha. (2020). Darsha. [online] Available at: http://darsha.org/about/ [Accessed 1 Nov. 2020].
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I suppose then that is the point of works like the disco LED hack, items that are cheap and easily thrown away will be used to make art, things are given new worth when used for artistic purposes, for example something like sirens:

Sirens

Which uses “found objects, and an audio composition [and] used motor hoods from the Trolli 35 lawnmower. The Trolli was one of the standard lawn mowers made and used in the former German Democratic Republic.” (Darsha, 2018) This is a prime example, it stands in the face of capitalism and it’s insistence on constant progression and development, forcing us to leave behind the obsolete in favour of the new, here we see a defiance of this, finding a use for what the system insists is useless.

The sonic loophole generator has a similar feeling, but for me has a stronger sense of that freedom to create, it actively encourages the viewer to try it themselves, it’s so easy but produces such wonderful effects. It follows a similar idea of disco LED hack, using everyday objects to create art. It feels though that the lack of control over the feedback loop created kind of means that it is harder for the artist to put themselves into what they create, the unpredictability of doing this, while fun, is also a barrier to being represented by what is created.

I feel that this particular piece was one I should try to recreate, trying to remain in the spirit of the artwork which encourages the viewer to try this themselves

Attempting a response

Not a lot of effort was involved to do this response and so I decided to film me actually doing it as it didn’t take long and I feel that the actual doing was part of the piece and not just the end result, so I set up my H1 borrowed a friends phone and called her, from there I just experimented with different stimuli for the feedback and moving the phone around to achieve different effects and in some cases stop it all together, I feel I was wrong when I wrote about the lack of control being a barrier to full representation, in actually doing it I felt I had quite a bit of control, more so then when I make a sound with a DAW as I was physically moving things about with my hands and that had a direct and predictable effect, admittedly the variety of things I could do with this control was limited but the feeling was a refreshing one. I think this lines up with my philosophy that art should be accessible and that everyone should do it, this is a relatively simple and interesting experiment that I feel imparts a good sense of control over what the artist is doing in the moment.

2 Hollow Blown Egg

“Materially she is interested in fragments, fringes and collisions of song and noise; artefacts of pop and fan culture, histories and archives; experimental turntablism and expanded usage of playback, samples and loops; and everyday action as/in performative gesture”

Lisabusby.com. (2018). About | Lisa Busby. [online] Available at: http://www.lisabusby.com/about.html?LMCL=aK6lJc [Accessed 28 Oct. 2020].
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‘2 hollow blown egg’ has an incredibly unique aura to it, Busby does not provide any explanation of her intentions for this song so I can really only talk about my own experiences listening to it.

I find this song to be so enthralling, the ominous and slightly playful pings in the intro that play over what seems to be just regular chatting in the background are wonderfully eerie, it gives the feel of the artist tuning up before the song begins and brings you into a certain expectation for how the rest of the song will be and then all of a sudden this very gritty bass comes in with these two repeating notes that kind of bleed into each other. The contrast, then, between this siren-like drone and the soft vocals from (I assume) Busby herself adds to the slightly ethereal nature of the song, and as the song progresses it goes from creepy and unsettling to ominous as the synth begins to get harsher and more aggressive, there is also a chorus of some kind on the vocals which makes it feel ever so slightly inhuman. The song ends with a thrum of a harsh bassy tone that abruptly ends and leaves us with a few seconds of room tone. You can really see Busby exploring the “collisions of song and noise” as the vocals (more or less) remain consistent whilst the drone that plays over them gets less musical and more like noise, harsher and corrupted, there’s this sense of a corruption over time that can be gained from 2 hollow blown egg.

Attempting a Response

Since I did the response to Jessica Ekomane I have been ruminating on my disappointment on how it went, or rather how it didn’t, and given that this week we are focusing on another music based practitioner I have had the feeling that I will fail in my attempt once again unless I try something new. My main problem is that (As I will often remind people) I am not a musician, I do not play an instrument and I work almost exclusively in the realm of sound design and sound effects, and so I feel that it is important to do a response to Lisa Busby’s work from that standpoint, and so the challenge for me then is to take a collection of works that are primarily musical and respond to them in a non-musical way, I have no idea is this will work. I believe it to be possible however I am not certain I have the necessary skills to pull it off.

I was absolutely enamoured with 2 Hollow Blown egg and so I initially tried to create something reminiscent of the harsh drone that plays through the majority of the piece and so I opened up MPC essentials and went to work putting together a synth using the Hybrid plugin. I developed a gravely harsh sounding bass which, after a small amount of experimentation I found that placing the notes in quick succession created a nice pattern, a sort of build up and release. With this I created a countdown of sorts, the ‘preparation before the main event’ reminiscent of the beginning of hollow blown egg which I was heavily inspired by. I also think it would be foolish to say that I have not been influenced in some part by Jessica Ekomane, in that her reasoning for Multivocal she talks about the phenomenon of listening all the way through and not feeling the change so drastically as if one were to leave the room and come back, missing the gradation, one would find the difference to be rather jarring. I feel that this ‘countdown’ does this to a certain extent but perhaps in not such an impressive or mesmerising way as Ekomane does. For this piece I essentially copied the structure of Hollow Blown Egg, said structure being, field/slightly domestic recording with a slow synth sequence, with a transition into a drone accompanied by some kind of vocal. The domestic recording in question was a field recording I did when I was 15/16 at an allotment, I had just got my zoom h1 and I brought it with me everywhere. The drone was relatively simple it was just a tone generated with audition which I added a tremolo to and then used Hysteresis by Glitchmachines (who you will find make some of my favourite plugins), the plugin slowly makes the 45 second sound clip become more and more chaotic which worked well in trying to emulate the gradual ‘corruption’ in hollow blow egg. I later found that the ‘countdown’ didn’t have a satisfying feeling to it and so I decided to reverse and add another glitchmachines plugin, this added to the feeling of buildup a lot more and generally sounded a lot better.

For the vocals I did a bit of digging around on the internet and found a recording of a philosopher I am a big fan of called Joseph Fletcher, in it he talks on the ethics of sexual freedom, he makes a point of how the victorians we’re extremely hypocritical in their attitudes and that we incorrectly assign the prudish nature of society of the puritans when in reality it is the victorians who should be blamed. I really enjoyed this part of his lecture and so I decided to incorporate that into the piece

Overall I feel that this piece came off well, I feel a lot better having made this then when I attempted to respond to Jessica Ekomane, the feeling from this emulates the original a lot more effectively I feel, I would say though that I am not sure that I can fully do a sound design response to a music piece, and while the structure and themes of a Busby piece were there, there is a certain emotional element that comes with music that I haven’t really emulated

Multivocal

“Multivocal is a polyphonic maze that unfolds to both the body and the mind. A generative take on rhythm and spacial perception, it presents the same events in different configurations.”

SoundCloud. (2019). Jessica Ekomane – Multivocal – LP – PRE-ORDER. [online] Available at: https://soundcloud.com/importantrecords/jessica-ekomane-multivocal-lp-pre-order [Accessed 21 Oct. 2020].
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From the start there is what initially feels like a repeating rhythm but slowly starts to become less and less rhythmic as the left and right channels become out of time with each other, it slowly starts to form a new rhythm and encourages the listener to listen out for the differences, it is simple which encourages this reflection and perception even further. There are several patterns that suggest different motions and emotions, swinging from one ear to another, an argument between two sides, you can also feel the exploration at moments as if the sound is testing your reaction to it.

I find myself chasing the moments of recognisable rhythm, Multivocal definitely puts me outside of my comfort zone and so when there are brief passages where there is a recognisable and followable tempo, it is easy to yearn for something like that

On listening to Ekomane’s work I can’t help but reflect slightly on my own, and while we both have different intentions and arguably work in very different worlds it is interesting to me that she is able to achieve her own goals in seemingly such a simplistic way, I often tend to go very grand and complicated but it seems that an emotion can be suggested to the listener with not so much of the dark brooding feel that I can’t seem to escape.

Attempting a response

My initial thoughts to try and create a Ekomane-esque piece was to use my midi controller on the free program that it came with and go through the synth plug-in. I added some chorus and turned up the release but overall it didn’t sound as crisp, and the changing tempo feel that keeps the listener enthralled wasn’t something I am able to achieve. Music is not my forte, I deal primarily in sound effects and so this is not something I have any real skill in, .

I then attempted to touch up the audio in audition where I dereverbed the audio, this helped the general quality this didn’t really add to the shifting nature that I was attempting to emulate. From there I decided to dive into the collection of VSTs I have that work for messing with sound in a specific way but it felt like applying new paint to rotten wood. I used the Hysteresis and Fracture Plugins from Glitchmachines and then some delay to change the tempo. It comes nowhere close to Ekomanes piece and doesn’t give the same effect, there is none of the catharsis that she tries to create (and indeed succeeds in creating)

“Her quadraphonic performances, characterized by their physical affect, seek a cathartic effect through the interplay of psychoacoustics”

Ekomane, J. (2019). Jessica Ekomane. [online] Jessica Ekomane. Available at: https://www.jessicaekomane.com/about [Accessed 21 Oct. 2020].
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Ultimatley though I think this failure is a good start, I have been very secure in my comfort zone of doing sound effects for my Audio Drama podcast, my foray’s into the more “abstract” areas of sound design are few and far between and I have rarely been happy with the outcome. That’s not to say I exclusively work in the realm of realistic sounds, I have done soundscapes with surreal/abstract elements but they are always in the context of a full scene and aren’t the actual piece themselves.

I would be interested to hear criticisms and suggestions from people who are better versed in music, I think once I begin to work more closely with the other people on this course I will find it easier to work on things like this.