Notice (en) : |
There were two sounds that primarily sparked this piece. The first was a barely audible disequilibrium in a toilet tank. This almost inaudible sound was cyclic, but constantly changing, with a faint rising squeak that occurred at the valve where the rod attaches, coupled with trickling water going down the refill pipe, so there was a squeak, trickle, squeak, trickle sequence. I stretched this out using granular synthesis and layered the results. There is an ebb and flow that naturally flows across the channels. It’s the long section that occurs after the rhythmic high pass filtered faulty faucet valve that begins the piece. Disk drives on/off spiral us out of that section into a gratis section in which a malfunction in my system caused the loud cyclic low frequency feedback. This is accompanied by fizz, a sound which I’ve always loved but never got a good recording of until a student, Alison Johnson, brought in a wonderful recording of fizzing. She divulged her method to me, sparking this piece. The fizz and the feedback are totally unprocessed other than slight equalization. Although some sounds may be somewhat identifiable, hopefully the listener will explore the piece purely for its sonic content. |