Vuvuzela Filter

Today I spoke with a colleague about the removal of the sound of those vuvuzelas during the world cup football broadcasts. It should not be that hard to build a vuvuzela filter, as the majority of the humming (that sounds like a swarm of bees from a distance) is tuned to B-flat. Of course, I was not the first one thinking of this. 

Many TV-watchers complain, but who are we to ban this African tradition? Adding a filter should not be very difficult, and indeed it is not: the German Tobias Herre created a simple tutorial on how to set up a multi band equalizer in Logic Express to filter out the unwanted frequencies. Be sure to check out the included sound examples. The vuvuzelas are completely gone!

Read the article (translated from German by Google) here.

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Dataflux

Dataflux, created by Kit Webster is a wonderful installation with synchronized sound and images. The visuals are projected on seven pillars, and the sound greatly enhances the experience of movement. Dataflux has some resemblance to Minus 60° by Karl Kliem. Again I cannot help thinking of Ryoji Ikeda’s work when watching this video, also because of the name, as it’s very similar to Ikeda’s Dataplex. For Dataflux Webster created software that renders the visuals live. 

Kit Webster will be one of the artists at this year’s Liquid Architecture festival in Australia taking place in June and July. 

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Denoising Field Recordings by Richard Eigner

If you have ever edited sound which was badly recorded, you have probably used a denoiser of some sort. And if there was a lot of noise to be removed (I recently received an interview recorded during heavy rain, with the request to remove the sound of the rain and no, I am not joking), you know the side effects such a treatment can have. 

Looking at them from another perspective, these side effects we try to avoid most of the time can sound pretty interesting themselves. Richard Eigner from Austria created his project Denoising Field Recordings based on this idea. He made recordings of particularly noisy environments and used denoising techniques to create the material for his compositions.

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Five Sound Questions to Andreas Bick

As an autodidact composer, Andreas Bick has a lot of projects on his name. We have heard his wonderful recordings of frozen lakes, but to get a good overview of all the great things this man does and listen to samples of his work, visiting his website at andreasbick.de is a must!

 

This month his piece Fire and Frost Pattern will be released on the German label Gruenrekorder, and next to a CD there will be a 5.1 surround mix available for download as well. 

 

After visiting Andreas’ personal website also visit his blog: Silent Listening. 

 

 

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

As a test of courage, we kids once went out on a nearby frozen lake. It was already melting and from the ice sheet intimidating whiplash fractures and crackling sounds emanated. I was scared and fascinated at the same time. I could feel the vibrations of the ice sheet through my shoes. The eerie and somehow otherworldly noises sounded like electrical flashes. I think that was the first time I somehow experienced that natural processes can have a musical quality.

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

I wish I could claim that I’m an always open-minded and receptive listener. I’m not. All good listening needs the right time. This is also a question of the mindset I’m in: some days I might be bored of the music and sounds surrounding me, then the other day I’m carried away by a moment of pure bliss, be it a note on the piano or the accidental occurrence of an unexpected sound in the backyard.

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Song Review: Jónsi & Alex - Atlas Song

Only after listening to Jónsi’s solo album Go, I discovered last year’s Riceboy Sleeps by Jónsi and Alex, a collection of mesmerizing songs. Let’s listen to the second track on the album, Atlas Song and see where it brings me.

 

Atlas Song begins with subtle sound flakes made of high piano notes. A pizzicato violin appears in the distance and slowly the patterns start melting together in a dreamy field of sounds. Suddenly there is room for Jónsi’s voice, repeating the same melody over and over again.

 

This music does not have a clear beginning or end. It takes me to a place of dreams and memories. It creates one state, one atmosphere, without the ambition to surprise too much. And it feels good. Gentle crackles roughen up the texture of the smooth layers of sound. Towards the end the vocals become distorted and rusty. I am slowly moving away, back into my own world. 

 

As many of you know, Jónsi is the lead singer of Sigur Rós. Also be sure to check out his new solo album Go. Visit the Jónsi & Alex website jonsiandalex.com.

Classic: One Apartment and Six Drummers

Today we will watch a classic many of you will have seen before, but as it was made long before Everyday Listening was born, and I really like this to be part of my archives, here we go once again. Music for One Apartment and Six Drummers (2001) shows us a surreal situation in which six musicians ‘play’ the apartment of an unsuspecting couple while they walk their dog. 

I still love watching these smartly dressed drummers leave their Volvo for a well-planned guerilla performance. It is a wonderful and inspiring idea. The whole world can be our instrument, all we need is great musicians to play it!

Rolex Tower Soundwave Sculpture

For the entrance hall of the Rolex Tower in Dubai, James Clar created the Rolex Tower Soundwave: a massive sculpture resembling a sound wave, made of stainless steel.

The sculpture is like an abstract name tag for the building, as the artist recorded his own voice, saying “Rolex Tower”. The waveform of this recording in 3D form was then used as blueprint for the sculpture. The sculpture blends in very well with the architectural design of the building:

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Five Sound Questions to Enrico Ascoli

Enrico Ascoli is an Italian sound designer, music producer and psychologist working in contemporary art, advertising, museum sound installations, theatre and cognitive research. He creates sound and music for advertising, and as we can see on his Vimeo page, he likes to experiment as well.

Apart from his applied and autonomous work Enrico Ascoli is a professor in sound design and music at the European Institute of Design (IED) in Milan. There is much more to know about this talented man. Find out by visiting his website www.enricoascoli.com. These are his answers to my questions:

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

I can’t talk about just a sound but about a mass of  perceptions, feelings and emotions that in me form the first synesthetic idea of perfect harmony and amazement. In this first memory of  my life, there is a strong sun backlight, stacks of books on the wood floor, Baroque shapes on the open window and two clear sounds: the high peep of the swallows and the quiet and melting drone of a sitar.  

 

Years ago I asked my mother about this memory and incredibly she could remember that day! I was three years old and on the turntable she was playing the duet between Ravi Shankar and Yehudi Menuhin (“Shankar meet Menuhin” del 1967).

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Pieces Of You

Pieces Of You is an installation created by Yoon Chung Han. It consists of eight pillars with mirrors attached to them who can turn around and seem to follow visitors with their reflections. There is a directional speaker in each pillar and moving around causes the harmonies to change. 

I like the idea of using directional speakers to create an ever-changing soundscape influenced by the position of the viewer. Looking at the movie below does not really reveal a lot of sonic depth though, as what we hear is a repetition of the same material. I wonder if it would be more interesting to not only reflect the visitor’s image, but also the sound he makes?

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Sun Boxes

This is one of those installations that I would love to encounter, while wandering in the desert for instance. Sun Boxes is a sound installation consisting of 20 speakers, independently operating. For those of you who have not seen it on the many other sites who showed this: each speaker has a built-in solar panel and contains a guitar sample.

The speakers are spread around so visitors can enter the installation to enjoy the ever changing composition from various sides. The installation, created by Craig Colorusso is completely solar powered and the music stops when the sun sets. A great way of showing we can create beautiful things only using natural resources. 

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