Language is Power?
Random rant (mostly note to self), January 30th, 2010

It's generally accepted the more ywe understand a language the better we can express ourselves through it. Having all the knowledge at our fingertips normally means we're able to take any direction we choose. But, the original point can easily become convoluted.  Certainly, trying to illustrate a complex feeling is not easy. Can there really be a map or predefined language to convey emotions?

John Cage said, "I want something I don't yet know." He talked about how he wants to forget previous ideas about music or sound and be on unfamiliar territory each time. He almost expressed a desire - not in
building upon previous experiences to produce a better versions of old attempts - but instead, attempting to wipe his memory and see every new thing as something entirely different, which he believed should be be dealt with as such.

Stumbling across a simple lift in emotion just through accidentally shifting up a semitone during a chord change is half the excitement of creating music. Of course, someone has undoubtedly given those combined elements a name and formula; 'X' combined with 'Y', times by 'Z' and divided by 'Q' equals emotion 'B'.  There's nothing wrong with that, but when you compare that to making a completely new and outstanding personal discovery, there's no comparison.

The difference is enormous. I believe those two methods of composition leave an inherent imprint on the finished product.  The 'outstanding discovery' (or the feeling of being immersed in personal discovery) is going to be truly celebrated, whereas the formulaic method most likely will not. It's not something anyone would be able to put their finger on. It would just be that raw, unrefined emotion of someone who is focusing on the emotions rather than the formula, which fundamentally means the listener is likely to have a closer relationship with that.

Obviously, it would be absurd to actively fight against traditional or established methods but it's equally absurd to depend on them entirely when dealing with something so malleable and ever changing as emotions.

Everything can be broken down into a formula. I guess there's no getting away from that. You can dissect a frog, take out all it's innards, stretch out its nervous system, veins, eyeballs, skin, skeleton, bone, cartilage and so on... That might tell you how it's constructed or what it's comprised of. Putting it back together and bringing it back to life, however, is not the same thing.

John Cage tackles this subject with far greater dexterity than I. As well as the video above, watch more of him here

The Loudness Wars
November 19th 2009

If you're unfamiliar with the 'Loudness Wars' then you may be surprised to hear that there is a decline in the quality of music being produced despite the evolution of technology.

it's an issue all studio engineers and music producers battle with to some degree or another. You'll notice this when you make a playlist or compilation of various artists. Certain tracks seem louder than others making the quieter tracks seem weaker. This is down to the final mastering stages in music production. You can push the 'perceived' loudness of a track using compressors and limiters, but there is a compromise - you lose the dynamics of the music and sometimes even the clarity of individual sounds.

But, because everyone wants to be the loudest on a playlist, producers are jumping over themselves to push the volume higher, no matter what the cost of the music's clarity. Have a look at the differences of these two waveforms below, one is the original (produced back in 1990) and the one underneath is a remastered version:

The black represents the volume of the music. In the top picture, there are peaks and troughs indicating loud parts and quiet parts. The one below contains no dynamics at all! This undoubtedly has been pushed to the point of crushing any fine details out of the original piece.

Basically, it's an illusion to make you think loudest is strongest. Don't be duped. Use your volume knob if a track's quieter and enjoy some quality produced music. There is beauty in the details. Don't let them be barged out the way by heavy handed shite!

Hauschka / Jeff Desom
September 25th 2009

This video is beautiful. Even more so when you know that the whole thing has been animated and pieced together using found postcards and photos from the U.S. Library of Congress. Really stunning. 

Hauschka - Morgenrot from Jeff Desom on Vimeo.

Resonance Experiments
February 4th 2009

Sound tangibly manifest in material form? I must have missed a meeting. This is how it works: a surface is excited by a frequency of sound, causing different vibrations. These vibrations create patterns in the powder that lies on top (first video).

Depending on the frequency and volume of sound, the sine waves produce different kinds of patterns in the substance. The results are just incredible. The same experiments work with water, rice, salt (middle) and cornstarch (bottom). I'm more intrigued as to what other effects certain sounds must be having on our physical and mental states. If these kinds of patterns can be generated with a single sine wave, what subtle effects must the intricate vibrations of an entire piece of music have on us?

I'm guessing there are perhaps more scientific reasons as to why certain tunes make us feel good or bad. I imagine there are further, more in-depth studies out there to be found, but to my mind, there has to be some far reaching implications of this, specifically with regard to how we absorb these vibrations and their effect on our state of being

I also imagine, however, that if someone could break it down it would be akin to the experience of being lectured on the complex chemical reactions taking place in the human body when you laugh instead of actually producing an impromptu spout of the stuff yourself. Needless to say though, I'd like to hear that lecture. Please feel free to drop me an email - here- if you have any links or other information relating to this field of study. I'd love to find out more.

What's the point in releasing CD's anymore? Do enough people really value the ownership of a tangible album nowadays to warrant the manufacturing of all that plastic and all that distribution? Does it really matter? Could we be experiencing a revolutionary change in the way music is absorbed and appreciated? Could this all be a good thing in the long term?

The first of these links that follow is a lecture by Bill Drummond about the redundancy of recorded music that is well worth putting aside 15 minutes for. The second is a link to an article by David Byrne about a similar subject with some great conversations you can listen to, including Thom Yorke and Brian Eno, about the music industry and how things are evolving.

Bill Drummond Lecture

David Byrne Article

Why
December 19th 2008

As and when I manage to coalesce the myriad thoughts wildly bouncing about within my confused cranium, I may attempt to gather them properly in some distinguishable form, but, since that is rare, let me allow the words of another to illustrate my reason for being so compelled to write instrumental music:

"A ball flying through the air is responding to the force and direction to which it was thrown, the action of gravity, the friction of the air which it must expend its energy on overcoming, the turbulence of the air around its surface, and the rate and direction of the ball's spin.
And yet, someone who might have difficulty consciously trying to work out what 3x4x5 comes to would have no trouble in doing differential calculus and a whole host of other calculations so astoundingly fast that they can actually catch a flying ball.
People who call this "instinct" are merely giving the phenomenon a name, not explaining anything.

I think that the closest that human beings come to expressing our understanding of these natural complexities is in music. It is the most abstract of the arts - it has no meaning or purpose than to be itself."

Tom
(Excerpt taken from "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" by Douglas Adams)

Kinetic Sculptor
November 2nd 2008