Lego Tinguely 2: a Lego Rhythm Machine

Last year I saw Pierre Bastien play live. Interesting how machines can act as a musical instrument and provide musical layers to improvise on. But it also appeared hard to keep it interesting as there is not much variation in the turning of a wheel. 

Roman Gerold was kind enough to share his latest experiment with me: Lego Tinguely 2: a mechanical rhythm machine made of Lego. A great idea to use such simple building blocks to generate noise and rhythms. Its sounds could play a role in a musical setting as well, if used in moderation. 

Sonic Terrain

I like to record the world around me while traveling, and post a recording on Everyday Listening now and then, but it is not my main source of content. Now if you are really interested in field recording, there is a new place for you to visit: Sonic Terrain.

Sonic Terrain “will aggregate information and publish exclusive content focused on sounds recorded outside the studio. Topics will be cross-disciplinary and focused on the use of field recordings in a variety of contexts, including sound design for visual media, music, fine art, scientific research, phonography, and much more.” according to its creators. 

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The Space In Between / Alpha-ville festival

The Alpha-ville festival is a new London-based digital arts, music and culture event that will take place on the 17th and 18th September 2010. The theme of this year’s festival is Visionary Cities.

One of the acts performing live at the festival is The Space In Between, a collaboration between electronic composer Nikka and visual software developer Alba G. Corral. Their video “Melophase” (shown above) gives you a impression of their work. It is a good example of how sound and visuals can come together and interact in one experience.  

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Five Sound Questions to Åsa Stjerna

After visiting that beautiful country again this summer, it feels good to resume the Five Sound Questions series with an artist from Sweden: Åsa Stjerna.

  

Åsa creates wonderful site specific multi channel sound installations, situated in urban, or natural environments, redefining space, through sound. 

 

Please have a look at her website for more information: www.asastjerna.se

 

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

The beats of my own heart! 

For a period of my early childhood I dreamt the same dream night after night, that I was lost in a labyrinth, hunted by someone who’s face I never could identify. I could only hear his steps. It took me a long period of time - and many horrified nights - to realize that the illusion of steps was created out of the sounds from my heart beating while I was lying in a certain position in my bed. 

Summary: Sounds can evoke illusions as well as emotions!

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

Carefully and with respect.

 

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SeoulSoundMap

It has been quite a while since we took a look at a soundmap like SoundTransit or Radio Aporee, while more and more of these maps are created around the world. This time I would like to share the SeoulSoundMap project with you. 

The campaign is created by the Korean sound art and culture webzine Sound@Media in order to raise awareness of the sonic environment of the city. I it allows us to travel trough the streets of Seoul, in sound, and experience of moment of this huge metropolis. Please try it for yourself.

The SeoulSoundMap is the first urban soundscape project with public participation in Korea. Anyone with a mobile recording device can participate and upload recordings via Audioboo.fm. Visit the Sound@Media website (in Korean, you might want to use Google translate on it) to find out more about their projects.

CD Sea by Bruce Munro

The way we consume or media changes and changes. While the CD brought ‘crystal clear’ digital audio into our living rooms, a few decades later, while some people still like them, many of us hardly ever touch them again. They just sit there in that box, collecting dust.

Why not use all these unused CDs to create a piece of art? Bruce Munro collected 600.000 old CDs for his installation CD Sea. A field full of them. And while the installation is visually striking, it is also a bit sad in a way. These pieces of plastic, these pieces of music, once cherished, now thrown away. Also watch this short video about the installation process:

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Berlin Hauptbahnhof

Paddling the quiet lakes and breathing the fresh forest air of Sweden was wonderful again this summer. While living in the city I tend to forget how peaceful. Next stop was Berlin, full of people and transportation, and I can hardly think of a bigger sonic contrast between two places.  

The Berlin Hauptbahnhof must be one of the busiest spots of the city, flooded with people, day in, day out. With the S-bahn, the U-bahn and national and international trains passing by, there is not a moment of silence, not a minute without a departure. Here is an impression of the station’s ambience:

Photo by Spigoo

Journal de Nîmes N°5: Joy Division / New Order

A new issue of Journal de Nîmes, the quarterly paper of denim-inspired boutique Tenue de Nîmes, is here. This fifth edition of the Journal is themed around Britain. Next to a piece about the great handmade denim label Tender, which has nothing to do with sound at all, I wrote an article about some very influential bands, for Britain and also for the whole evolution of popular music: Joy Division and New Order, and took a look at their debut albums, Unknown Pleasures and Movement, respectively. Click on the image for a readable version, or if you are in Amsterdam, pick up a fresh copy at Tenue de Nîmes, Elandsgracht 60.

Slowing Down

While the sun shines abundantly and temperatures rise to unknown heights, the Everyday Listening visitor will notice a decrease in posts. While this year I will not be a full month away from the internet and there might be an interesting project or fact to share with you, the coming weeks will be quieter than usual.

Please keep sending me your suggestions, projects, review requests, and there will be enough interesting things to talk about for the new season! Have a great summer and enjoy some quiet time as well. Leave the city, take a hike, play an instrument, listen.

 

In the meantime, in case you missed them, some good posts from the past weeks:    

 

Piano Migrations Installation - a wonderful sound and video installation

 

Denoising Field Recordings - listen to the sound of noise reduction

 

Five Sound Questions to Ray Lee - this series keeps getting better

Photo by: Rukakuusamo

Five Sound Questions to Bob Levene

This week the artist answering the five sound questions is by Bob Levene. Working with sound and video, she creates performances, installations, sculptures and “wall based works”. The image on the left shows a still from her Experiments for Microphones. 

 

Have a look at Bob Levene’s website at www.boblevene.co.uk.

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

I remember waking up in the night as a kid to what i thought was a women screaming somewhere in the woods behind our house, I was so shocked, I must have really believed it, as I got out of bed and went to the window to check then went and woke up my parents, who told me it was a fox.

 

It’s easy to create paths and make associations in retrospect, but I think this must have contributed to my interest in sound and its source, I often wonder about how we hear & listen to things based on what’s making them as well as what they sound like.

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