The Disquiet Junto has been providing me with a much-needed creative outlet this school year (I have taken on extra duties in addition to my regular job and am swamped!) I was very happy with this week’s project, which was to take very short snippets of a non-rhythmic sound and turn them into rhythms for a piece.
In working with these short samples, the shifts in timbre and overtones began to grab my attention more than the rhythmic loops. When taking long recordings and turning them into short loops, the background “noise” of the recording becomes very much an important characteristic of the loop. When working with very short audio samples, background noise becomes more like a pitch.
My VCFA mentor Diane Moser once presented on R. Murray Schafer’s concept of “Soundscapes” and and how background noise is only background noise if we define it contrast to what we are paying attention to and expect to hear. (Obviously Cage’s piece 4′ 33″ draws on this principal also.)
Anyway, enough philosophizing – let’s play weird music!
And if you like this sort of thing, you may also enjoy my playlist of all my Disquiet tracks.
nate trier 