Monday June 22, 2009
This post was sparked by a conversation I had last Tuesday with Marty about Music and Sound. We stumbled upon the subject after the Modular office erupted into a cacophony of drowning cats, caused by two loudly competing sound systems. Marty voiced his contempt for the sound clash but then drew my attention to the 1997 Flaming Lips release “Zaireeka”, which utilises this idea of interplay between sounds from separate sources.
Zaireeka was released as a four disc set, “the albums eight songs consist of four stereo tracks, one from each CD. The album was designed so that when played simultaneously on four separate audio systems, the four CDs would produce a harmonic or juxtaposed sound. The discs may be included in different combinations, omitting one, two or three discs.”
I love this idea as it transforms the way we listen to music and opens up endless possibilities for popular music to inhabit an entirely new sonic space. I guess it would also bring people together to listen to the album, as not everyone owns four stereos… (bringing it back to the point that was raised in an earlier post about the sacredness of music). This album also gives the audience the ability to interact with the music and take on the role of producer/mixer.
Immediately this concept reminded me of the work of sound artists Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, who are a Canadian couple who experiment with sonic environments. I first can across their work at a retrospective in Denmark in 2006 and have been captivated ever since. Some of you might be familiar with the piece “Murder of Crows” that they had in last years Sydney Biennale. This work was an amazing 100-speaker surround sound installation that enveloped the listener in a 30 minute sound scape…ranging from spoken word, sound effects to gregorian chants and orchestral arrangements. The audience got a real experience of the sculptural and physical qualities of sound.
Here is another example of their work that I pinched from an audio CD that was accompanying “The Walk Book”. This style of recording is called a binaural recording, in which two microphones are embeded in a dummy of a human head to mimics the way in which we hear. You will get the idea from this recording if you listen to it with headphones.
Words by Will
Talking about ř.1 And Beyond"
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Hey guys,
we tried Zaireeka a couple of years ago, and despite the fact that the speakers were constantly out of sync (which was impossible to lineup mind you) it was quite an interesting experience. That coupled with the DVD and the ever increasing “cloudy” enviroment made it all the more worth while.
I say try it out for yourself.