Five Sound Questions to Mamoru

Performance: Etude no.13 - Ice. Photo: Emi Yamaguchi

Japanese artist Mamoru creates his own instruments and installations. In his series of Etudes, he takes average, everyday objects and places them in an abnormal situation. He encourages his audience to indulge in the, preferably unamplified sound, to really carefully listen and be surprised by what they hear. 

This week he answers my five questions about sound and listening. Read more about Mamoru and his work on his website www.afewnotes.com.

1. What sound from your childhood made the most impression on you?

It is really hard to say what sound made the most impression on me… Honestly, I don’t even remember if I was very sensitive about it. However, one thing that comes to my mind is the memory of Sundays during my childhood. I grew up in a family that goes to a church every Sunday. This is very rare in Japan (it says less than 1% of the population is Christian), and it wasn’t fun for me to get up early and drive an hour or so to get there while my friends are watching the Anime on TV at home.

 

Well, getting back to sound, my dad used to put on the classic music radio station on our way. They put “the” classical music like Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, etc. It didn’t interest me a lot. Whenever I hear that music on the radio, I cannot help thinking about those Sundas; the feeling I had in the car, the voice of the narrator for the program, the smell of the car, and so on. Looking back from now, it is interesting that I connect a type of music with certain sets of memories. 

2. How do you listen to the world around you?

Now that I work with everyday objects such as plastic straws, ice, food-wrap/film/folio and everyday practices such as drinking and eating to generate sound, I am always listening to subtle sounds all around me in my life. I named my series “Etudes” and it’s not an etude for particular instruments, but is the etude for everyday life. You can see/hear some of the examples on my website or blog.

 

Etude no.13, for example, deals with the sound of ice. You hear the simplest variations when you put an ice cube in a glass jar, and listen to its melting sound. I became interested in ice partly because it is as ephemeral as sound; it melts away, as sound fades away. The sound from which I am creating my latest performance is the sound you hear when you pour some water on the dry earth. It is called “etude no.36 - water and dry earth / variation for growing plants”. I don’t buy seeds, but use the left-over from my daily cooking, like the top of the carrots and so on to plant. They won’t last long, and in a way I am delaying their death by planting it back in earth.

3. Which place in the world do you favor for its sound?

I’ve found a lot of sounds in my kitchen, but I never like the sound of refrigerator… I even unplugged it in some places I stayed.

4. How could we make sound improve our lives?

I guess most of us rely on our eyes to understand everything, or at least it seems we are trying to. The act of listening is not taken into much consideration, and not much people are trained to do so as well. That is partly why listening to sound can open a different perspective very easily. My work gives people a chance to listen to things that are done repetitively on a daily basis. Most of them have heard the sound, but never listened to it.

 

Personally, I believe amplification of sound doesn’t help making people’s ears opene up nor carry the impact of the sound. Rather, the subtle sounds, small sounds, sensitive sounds with creative entrance/frame work the best. So, I guess the sound that draws people into the act of listening may improve our life as a result.

5. What sound would you like to wake up to?

Definitely not the alarm, computer, air conditioner, refrigerator, nor mobile. I prefer no sound, but if you insist… then something acoustic and non musical. I kind of like the sound that a building makes when the light comes up and the temperature goes up. Actually, the place that I am staying right now is an artist residency in Tokyo, and the windows makes this cracking sound. Although it is very loud, somehow it doesn’t make me feel uncomfortable.

Also read the answers of other artists in the Five Sound Questions section.