tique

tique is a new mini-release of sketches and experiments using various technologies including: earthed cable, tape, mobile phone, teapot, synthesiser and mystery objects.  

I decided it would be a nice idea to off-load some ideas that have been sitting around for a couple of months, clearing the decks (so to speak) for the Germany experience.  

1. Panoramic Heights: Tap [1:15]
2. Panoramic Heights: Roll [2:51]
3. Panoramic Heights: Sand [7:21]
4. Seven Areas To One [1:49]
5. Container [1:40]
6. Lemon Tree [4:02]
7. Small Insects [1:25]
8. Scented Weather [4:02]
9. Rainshower With Typewriter [2:02]

Download: *here*

Liner notes:

tique is a selection of sketches, experiments and happy accidents from the past eight weeks or so. Since finishing the mimi release and performing it live, I've spent some time exploring a few ideas I've had lying around for awhile.

The first three tracks, working under the banner "Panoramic Heights" are excerpts from an extended improvisation using an earthed cable and my trusty Tascam 424 tape deck. The signal from these objects/devices was manipulated using the same Max/MSP software I used for mimi and the subsequent live performances, wherein a delay/filter patch manipulates the incoming signal to create textures and loops. "Seven Areas To One" and "Container" are short collage works with material derived from deliberately lo-fi field recordings, using my mobile phone as the recording device. Upon rendering the captured audio signal, the resultant sound - when juxtaposed with other sounds - creates some interesting sonicoutcomes. “Lemon Tree”, “Small Insects” and “Scented Weather” are all multi- layered synthesiser improvisations with Max/MSP real-time processing.

The final track "Rainshower With Typewriter" is my personal favourite, the source material is being kept a secret for the time being.

I've always admired the potential of technologies when you approach them from an unconventional perspective. Whether the motivation be the result of a curious imagination or deprivation of sleep.

Tristan Louth-Robins
September 2008

Panoramic Heights: earthed cable, Tascam 424 Portastudio, laptop
Seven Areas To One: mobile phone, laptop
Container: teapot, mobile phone, laptop
Lemon Tree: puckered synth, laptop
Small Insects: jitter synth, laptop
Scented Weather: musk synth, laptop
Rainshower with Typewriter: ???, laptop

Inside the Sony Ericsonn's digital lo-fi ear

This has been something of a pet project in spare pockets of my time in the past couple of weeks. I've been extracting the audio track from video recordings made with my mobile phone in quiet places.

Naturally, mobile phone videos come with a significant degree of noise, both in terms of video and audio. I discovered something interesting about the audio track when I was messing around with a short video I shot whilst driving back from McLaren Vale about a month ago. Using iMovie I slowed down the video as much as I could to see the visual effect, when I played it back the audio track had been rendered into an expected drone albeit with a strange selection of little digital artifacts - clicks, swooshes and echoes. Nice stuff in other words, from a Tsunoda/Julius/Minard point of view.

Over the past week I've been making some more recordings in quiet places, both rendering at slowed down (droney) and high speed (cicada-y) settings. Quiet places for the reason the built-in mic is partial to distortion and clipping at loud volumes and broad frequency ranges.

I like these sounds because they sound very artificial. Although they are sped up and slowed down, they're faithful to their original form in a somewhat disembodied and plastic manner. When one sound event is mixed with others, their respective semblance becomes obscured and new sonic identities and environments are evoked.

The example below is a sample montage of several recordings from several different locations. The audio from the recordings has been modified using the simple technique explained above, in many cases the original video track would be slowed down/sped up in its entirity, then selections of the modified audio would be selected for collage.

audio example [1:49]

***

Regular visitors to this blog will know I've always been an aficionado of lo-fi technologies, though I can first remember being introduced to the lo-fi potential of mobile phones a couple of years ago when a UK friend Kate Donovan set up a project called Airvent. The project involves her phone calls to a Berlin radio station who broadcast and record her movements around London, the sound of her surrounding environment is filtered to the listener via the mobile's low fidelity signal. Occasionally traffic, conversations, jackhammers and the sound of birds can be heard slipping through the digital ether. I assume the title is an analogy of sorts, the airvent as a carrier, amplifier and filter of sounds whose sources/locations are unknown to the listener.

***

I've also started recording using unorthodox acoustic filters, including, (LO!) a teapot in the garden the other night.

Mimi - six works for turntable and computer

I have uploaded Mimi for download. The bundle comes with 128 kps mp3s, artwork and liner notes.

A hard copy format will accompany my performance at Felt Space on the 8th of August.

Download here. (20.2 MB)

Tracklisting:

1. The Drop
2. Farewell Mimi
3. Ear To Air
4. Oceanic Lonliness
5. Radio Glory
6. A Room For Departure

The Son's Room, By This River

Something of a different post. A couple of weeks ago I saw Nanni Morreti's masterpiece "The Son's Room" (2001) which features Eno's "By This River" as the soundtrack. "The Son's Room" is an incredibly sad film, it's about a family grieving the death of their son. The video below shows a scene in the film when the song is first introduced, where the father is buying a record for his dead son - it's Eno's Before and After Science from which "By This River" is taken. The song also features at the end of the film to a devastating and beautiful effect. Rent it out if you're curious.



So. Following this viewing a couple of weeks ago, I decided to attempt a cover of it in the wee hours after Lauren had gone to bed. It's a pure Garageband production as it was a spare-the-moment idea, with a couple of overdubs I felt it was done > replete with a discrete Eno-ish synth pad.

By This River (Brian Eno cover)

The ongoing fascination with Eno continues. Since 2004.

Noise Improvisations

I've been spending the last hour playing aorund with some noise samples in the Sumi_matic (Max 4 version because the 5 version is clicking for some reason.)

I'll forever be amazed just how much you can get out of a simple little bit of noise.



Using a five-second 'proto-snare' noise sample, it is uploaded to the Sumi_matic's 8 loopers at fixed playback speeds; the first four at around 400 loops p.s - which is how the buzzing effect is emulated. The remaining four loops are set at around 90 loops p.s, giving these a more rumbling but slightly harmonic sound. The improvisation below is just me playing around with the playback speeds. I'm quite pleased and suprised by the results. Also the filter in Sumi_matic is set to a resonant envelope, hence the (erm) resonant sound.

Noise Improvisation #1 [3:00]

Demoes

I have posted some 'song-writery' demoes for brave ears at The Soniferous Amphx blog.

http://soniferousamphx.blogspot.com/2008/01/bearing-some-bedroom-demoes.html

Music For Tidy Spaces

For the past week I've spent some time working with Plogue Bidule, creating some generative sonic processes. One of the more palatable results has been a work I've called Music For Tidy Spaces. I won't go into any serious musings of the aesthetic/perceptual elements of the work (it is the season to take it easy after all), but put simply, it seems to work well in a relatively 'tidy' space played at a low volume.

As I mentioned before it was realised with Plogue Bidule, using sets of MIDI sequences, schocastic generators and audio loops, with subsets of post-effects such as filters, tap delays and reverb. I incorporated a matrix bidule (similar to the one in MAX/MSP) to 'score' the sonic process - capable of isolating and re-routing tracks. The sonic materials consists of sine tones, noise signals and a couple of long ukulele recordings which I performed myself.



It's no great technological feat but I'm quite happy with the sound of it, and it has provided some interesting conceptual in-roads for the research.

I actually composed the work for my partner Lauren's upcoming birthday in a couple of days. It's dedicated to her tidy spaces. :)



The cover art on the CD pack reflects my current obsession with inks (see below.)



As the track is 18 minutes long, audio excerpts can be downloaded here:

Excerpt 1: download [730 KB]
Excerpt 2: download [729 KB]
Excerpt 3: download [741 KB]
Excerpt 4: download [732 KB]

Tyndall Assembly Podcast

A JArts Crew podcast of a feature on the Tyndall Assembly can now be downloaded here:

http://www.pod-planet.com/episode_detail.asp?eid=1467466

It features me (amongst others) giving some an alarmingly erudite voxpops.

Tyndall Assembly: JJJ JArts Crew: Audio interview

The audio version of the recent article on JJJ's J Arts Crew has been posted on The Program website (external link.) Scroll to the foot of the page to find it.

[23.4.07] Tpot 1 audio and analysis

Masters research update at Still and Moving Lines, click here to read.

[14.4.07] The Meningie EP > Listen at MySpace

Whilst I was in Meningie with some friends last week, I decided to record a few tracks on Seb's laptop when I had the place to myself one night. They were recorded in five hours, mostly first takes with a bit of overdubbing and processing here and there. The tracks themselves are no technological feat (also my playing is at times hampered by the wonders of wine), but I felt they warranted some form of release. That is, a limited release for the time being. Three tracks: "Stopframe", "Artist and Muse" and "Dedicated" made the cut. So here they are for your listening pleasure at my MySpace page - enjoy!

Once I can find a reliable server, I'll post the tracks for download. (stay posted..)

Listen/Download

[2.4.07] MySpace

In the past couple of days I have done the dirty business and signed myself up for a Myspace music account. As I am having ongoing problems with putting up audio files (I will get my own domain soon!) this at least allows visitors to listen to a few streaming tracks from my singer/songwriting stuff and sound art. Enjoy, and become my friend if you like.

www.myspace.com/tristanlouthrobins

[24.3.07] Milkcrate 14 - Six Appeal

I am currently partaking in Milkcrate 14 in Brighton, South Australia. There are some more pics at the Soniferous Amphx.

Much more at Tales From The Crate

[29.3.07] Some audio tracks can be found at the Milkcrate site here. Mine is called "Flock of Starlings." I will post my other contributions over the next couple of weeks.

[15.2.07] Rocks audio problems fixed

The hosting problems regarding the pebble music audio has been temporarily fixed. The main problem is with Geocities in general, whom I've received free hosting from for the past five years. However, as this blog and the external pages are extending into the breach of (shock horror) 21st century media such as downloadable audio, I will have to purchase a sizable domain before too long.

Rocks, Mouth and Delay #1 > all files are roughly 1MB in size.-*

To read a brief description about the piece scroll down to the Rocks, Mouth and Delay post, or click here.

• Part one audio
  
• Part two audio
  
• Part three audio
  

Also, regarding the Milkcrate audio (see previous post), these audio files may have now been moved by the the site administrator and may be unavailable at present. When I find some time over the next couple of days I will attempt to post these on the Geocities server, though due to space constraints these audio files will have to be kept to 30 second excerpts.

[2.2.07] Rocks, Mouth and Delay #1 mp3

Here's the first of my little forays into rock music :). I have recorded myself playing rocks by cupping a flat one in my palm and striking in with another. I can control the resonance of the struck rock by putting my cupped hand up to my mouth, by opening and closing my mouth I can control the resonance and respective pitch of the sound. On this recording I have recorded two tracks of myself playing the rocks to my Tascam 424, then upon playback I routed a digital delay effect send and altered the delay time and feedback settings in realtime. It does sound a little bit clunky, but should give a fair representation of this technique, the delay is used to make the process a bit more interesting.

Rocks, Mouth, Delay #1.mp3

[17.11.06] Graupel audio

On my day off mid-week, I decided to revisit my Graupel work (formerly know as Songs and Paintings) and record some of the subsequent experiments. Whereas earlier versions of the work instructed that a sine wave be used for the sake of acoustic clarity in perceiving the phenomena of the bowls' natural resonances, I have found more harmonically complex sounds deliver more satisfying results - such as harmonic sweeps and notable changes in tone colour.

The audio sample below is the result of two bowls being played with seperate synth patterns being used as the sound material. What you are hearing are the synth patterns being articulated by the bowls' natural resonance, which are being excited by a shallow layer of water crossing harmonic nodes of the bowls' base. Naturally, the synth patterns are exciting the bowls' base as well, though it is the activation of harmonic nodes and the glissando movements of the water crossing over the base which causes the amplified frequencies and whistling tones.

Graupel: 151106.mp3