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]

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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.

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