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Kwik Picks 03

Some Recent Additions to Sonus.ca

By Kevin Austin
Concordia University, Montréal

Robert (Bob) Paul Bauer | Hsiao-Lan Wang | Michael Trommer | Paul Rudy | Adam Stansbie

Robert (Bob) Paul Bauer

Electro-Samba No.1 (2005) — 00:03:00

Keyword(s): MIDIstration

A fractured dance from existing Latin percussion samples. Linear in nature with overlapped phrasings. A bit of a romp! in his return to studio composition after 20 years.

Big Ben (1983) — 00:15:24

Keyword(s): layers and loops, concrete

image YG

Quietly passing loops. layered with traditional analog studio transformations, done with a DDL. Short journeys of exploration in a loosely sectional piece. From another age, the days of sonic innocence and simple play, bells and babies. Remembrances of the sounds that occurred day and night, and the obligatory Bigga Bigga Ben Ben quote rounding it out. Almost.

Extensions II (guitar) (1974) — 00:08:21

Keyword(s): exploration of the object

The classical guitar dismembered by filters, fingernails, screws and ring modulators. Loops and layers play out in this concrete exercise. With the technical limitations of the mid-70s studio present, much of the surprise and joy of exploration comes through the distortion and sounds sliding side to side.

Prisms (1972) — 00:09:11

Keyword(s): concrete, layering, ring modulation, exploration of the object

An early exploration with layering and loops, loosely sectional with a sense of wondering around the new sonic playground. Sound objects are left as diamonds in the rough and the unexpected is always upon us, as is the somewhat expected.

First Sines of Life (1972) — 00:14:57

Keyword(s): modular analog synthesis, classical studio, sine tones

The discovery of the studio playground. Slowly evolving gestures somewhat dominated by the new technological possibilities. Layers and incidental relationships, as will happen with random voltage generators. Patterns apparently appear to be lost to the incoming sounds. Slower, and speeding up, and evolving (analog) fm sounds in the middle, slowly leading through densification to a peak, and suddenly only the high blipples remaining, speeding up into a Le Caine-like homage.

Hsiao-Lan Wang

Green Potato I (2001) — 00:06:00

Keyword(s): exploration of the object, voice

Through a range of digital transformations and techniques, layered texture-like objects loop and swoop. Gestures are defined and re-defined in a largely evolutionary fashion, most micro-gestures being about “word length”, with a sense of an over-seeing “phrase” (breath length) organization. Layers, seldom more than 3 or 4, remain rather firmly separated.

Refrain (2000) — 00:08:31

Keyword(s): mixed

For yangchin (hammered dulcimer) and tape the piece works within and against the traditional limitations of both the chinese instrument, its performance techniques and the possibilities of the new digital sampling / editing technologies. The two sound worlds frequently stand apart from one another even if there are attempts at integration. It is part of the new cultural realities where traditions meet where both parties when speaking a third language have an accent. The title may refer to the somewhat cyclical structure, or from mutual holding back.

Take a Walk with Me (2000) — 00:09:06

Keywords: collage

A joining together, or maybe more a contrasting of disparate types of elements, concrete and electronic (or highly processed concrete). Gestures tend towards a median length, and feel as if they are based upon intuitive body rhythms. Layers remain largely segregated as one objective appears to be the collage-like presentation of materials, dramatic, narrative and sonic.

Vase (1999) — 00:05:01

Keywords: exploration of the object

A linear somewhat narrative study, sounds are largely grouped by gesture and register with identifiable transitions as layers enter and displace pervious idea. Samples are looped and shifted, given metric and quasi-random shapes.

Michael Trommer

some sparkled horizon (2006) — 00:06:03

Keywords: timestretched soundscape, resonance, sound art

The generative element is a simple line in the water, created by a power boat. Remaining true to this aesthetic imperative, the sound is a single growing and dying streak over a time-stretched early morning. The moment becomes more than just that.

I am hole (2006) — 00:07:19
city droog (2005) — 00:06:59

Keyword(s): club/beat

Garageband beds and occasional standard overlays.

Paul Rudy

Remnants (1998) — 00:12:42

Keyword(s): exploration of the object, stereo acousmatic

A concrete trumpet, taken apart, resembled, dented, scraped and granulated into sounds unheard (of) before. Remnants of previous work, or previous ideas, of a previous life. Remnants of a instrument brought to the molecular level. Gestures and ideas flow with the dictates of the processes of decay and regeneration, but the new is always less than the old, leaving remnants.

November Sycamore Leaf (2006) — 00:09:01

Keywords: stereo acousmatic

Slow broad gestures of granulated and time-stretched colors. Sounds slowly layered into spaces weaving from far to near, from out to in. Long-breathed gestures. Have your subwoofer turned on for the occasional gentle hit.

Adam Stansbie

Early Morning (2006) — 00:10:36

Keyword(s): acousmatic

Time stretched and resonated piano, but largely hidden. Deeply layered high acousmatic transformations, shapes and structures.

Keywords

Kevin Austin
Montréal, 2006—VIII—20

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