Sound - Research Artists

We were given a bunch of sound artists to look (listen) to, as this was a very long list I decided to only look into the ones that had interesting sounding names. 

Walter Ruttman
Todd Dockstader

http://dockstader.info/compositions/aerial/

Notes

• Cyber sounding 
• Kind of ambient sounding 
• High tech science lab music
• wolf howl sound?

I didn't really find Tod Dockstader very interesting, I don't feel as though he has much of a distinctive sound to his work. 

Bernard Parmegiani
Iannis Xenakis
Alvin Lucier
Steve Reich

Notes 

• Looped vocal "come out to show them"
• Surround sound sounding
• Guessing it is set to ring around from left to right with headphones 
• Repetitiveness helps you reflect on what message is trying to be put across
• The longer it is played the more voices saying "come out to show them" begin to echo and loop too until they become intense by almost becoming unrecognizable by the amount of looping

I decided to listen to something else of his work as I found Reich's looping to be very interesting. I found this on Youtube aptly named "clapping music" which I found to be very interesting as its simplicity of clapping and changing the bottom row to backward one each time creating a different sound each time. 

From looking into Steve Reich I have learnt the power of repetitiveness to express something to the point where the meaning is seen differently. I also liked the simplicity of the "clapping music" and by staggering something can create a completely different sound. 

 Brian Eno

Notes 

• Heavily based around instruments 
• Uses piano a lot throughout the piece
• A quiet hum which is accompanied by a slight ringing which I thought was my tinnitus 
• The album consists of four compositions created by layering tape loops of differing lengths

I don't really feel as though I have learnt much from looking into Brian Eno except how to create a ambient and relaxing musical piece. 

William Basinski
Chris Watson
Martin Stig Anderson
Ryoji Ikeda
Scanner
Matmos

Notes 

• I like the simplicity of the sounds and the playful way in which they have been composed together. The delay of the vocals creates a dynamic sound which is quite dramatic and trippy. The continuos loop of voices creates a somewhat spiritual sounding piece.        

• The chimes give me nostalgia of The Prodigy - Omen. 

• Sounds like prodigy met spy kids, the strings in it sounds similar to the score for the first Spy Kids movie

I like the playfulness of the sounds and would like to keep this in mind when creating my own sound.

Avalanches
Amon Tobin

          Notes 

• Alien 
• The low frequency clicking throughout reminds me of the clicking sound the Predator makes in the movie Predator
• Cyber "beep" "boops" is a nice relief but also is slightly unsettling as it sounds sort of scheming 
• Visually the installation is beautiful 
• The different frequencies create an uneasy sci-fi sounding piece 
• I like the juxtaposition of the cyber sounds and the rawness of the alien squelches 

I think the variation of sounds and the juxtaposition of genre sounds help to create a very dynamic and unique sound which is easily distinguishable. I would like to keep in mind the juxtaposition of genre when creating my own work.

Bibliography

http://www.amontobin.com/

http://dockstader.info/compositions/aerial/

http://vague-terrain.com/