For this unit I tried to shift my process backwards. I started by asking myself what it is that I am attracted to artistically and what it is that I want to make. Instead of coming up with a concept and area of research through my readings I tried to direct my reading towards the kind of sound and music I am currently trying to compose.
Glitch has always found its’ way into my sound. Vocals are elements I have tried incorporating in my work since I have started. I have always found this part troublesome however. How do I position myself in the song? In the mix? Do I try and lull the listener into an organic, intimate performance? Do I make the mediated distance created by the digital media obvious? Do I use the voice like any other sonic material? Should it take the shape of words?
This is where the essay topic arose from.
For the creative work I am aiming for delicate synthesized and recorded sounds. I have been experimenting with the Granulator ii as I find it suitable for creating such textures. I am hoping to achieve a choral ritualistic flavour and will be focusing on the rhythmical elements which I usually shy away from.
This part of a Holly Herndon interview comes to mind. She comments on how the limit to what can be considered academic music is weirdly just that; regular beats. ‘They’re afraid of the body’, replies the interviewer.
Pamela Z’s Breathing is another inspiration.
The repetitive nature of the work interests me, as well as the cut up voices and the layering of the breathing sound pads.
Suprema by Lucrecia Dalt is another reference. Again it is quite repetitive and has this ‘wavy’, in-and-out structure. The sounds have a very organic quality to them and seamlessly blending natural and syhtesized samples.
There is also something in the work of Hatis Noit I would like to emulate. Hatis Noit uses exclusively her voice to create endless textures which she layers into this operatic, almost religious, ‘healing’ sound.
The visual for this is created through AI, merging digital intelligence and the analogue body.