It’s been a hard week for Steve the sound artist! What you may not know is that he has a broken leg which is restricting his movement but that’s not been the real problem. After listening to all the soundscape submissions he then had to find inspiration to begin work. He says that is probably the hardest part, seeing if there are any trends or themes he can pick up on and working out his strategy for composition.
This afternoon I received this email rejoicing that inspiration had been found!
There is more to this than a plea to for me to go and see him. For us looking at the process its important to consider some of the influences he mentions so I have picked out some of those as links.
“Hi Dylan,
Right, the penny finally dropped with the sound ogg, and I got inspired. 90 bars in the bag – and getting the start is the most important part (and difficult) as this sets the theme and mood. Ask Craig… he was always banging onto me about how hard it is to get started… and I agree.
Over all the feel is distant but close, close but distant, mellow, haunting, rainy day (this will change as the piece progresses I’m sure). I have used a ‘tuned’ atmos (group 5) to provide a bed and pulsing rhythm, added a lush chordal pad (Kontakt software running in Cubase) and a sort of choir sound which is made out of a guitar note! Also from group 5 there are incidental sounds from the shopping centre and ‘grass noises’ (I think). What at first sound like clunks and clatters have been morphed into subtle punctuation.
The piece feels as though it is leading towards some bells, so I will be working on those next.
Overall for want of genre, it sounds a bit ‘lounge’ / chill / ambient, but I intend to go through some significant changes in pace and vibe as it develops.
Inspiration wise, Eno’s “My Life in a Bush of Ghosts” springs to mind (and this will be built upon once I introduce precision) along with a sort of Hawkwind stutter effect (I gated the atmos to create a straight 1/8th pulse).
Hope this helps with the blog 🙂
Best, Steve aka hop-a-long Cassidy”
I just had to go to the studio to listen to what he had. Grabbing those initial scribblings are so important in understanding the creative process. Seeing the end product is meaningless academically if you don’t get the begining.
We sat down, opened a bottle of Rum and he fired up the equipment. The speakers warmed up (I didn’t know they had to do that!) and lights flashed. After some debate over whether he would let me record our conversation I positioned the Ipad in a way I thought I would get what was said and also perhaps the music. In the end its got the quality of a secret recording and the music’s subtleties are lost in the distant mono but this is what was said. Well worth a listen at it gives an insight into how composition takes place.
To be honest its far too early to make any meaningful artistic critique but I do get a hint of melancholy post industrial soundscape. Perhaps you could think about what parts of this “composition in progress” make that meaning!