Résonance #9 [nt027]

Résonance documents a series of live improvisations on laptop. The performances feature field recordings and electronic elements, beats, and digital processing.

Location recordings include resonant spaces that add their own colour to the existing soundscape, sounds of the five elements (TCM, qi gong), natural and environmental sounds, found sounds etc.
The sound design focuses on sculpting the natural resonant frequencies of recorded sounds, as well as textural and gestural qualities.

The work is grounded in electroacoustic tradition and draws from experimental electronic music, with a strong focus on deep listening. Every performance is entirely improvised.

**

Starting a new phase in the development of electroacoustic material, those two performances come after a break from solo sets. Meanwhile, i have been generating material and adapting my electroacoustic range of sounds for the group Inclusion Principle. My approach to sound sculpture has gradually been focusing on minimal detail. The harmonic contents are simpler, to fit with other instruments, but also to hone in on particular frequencies and highlighting details of interaction, phase relations and interference patterns – beats.

By creating space, the focus shifts towards relations and the notion of distance and perspective. The texture, tonality and gestural quality of natural sounds is very much present, but we are delving deeper into the essential quality of sound, into the vibrational universe.

This spaciousness, and the invitation to practice deep listening naturally leads to the pratice of meditation and mindfulness through listening. So it felt right to present this work as nada, the sound of silence, and invite the audience to meditate using soundscapes as support of concentration; using the traditional meditation practice (also used by composer Pauline Oliveiros) that alternates and merges the close listening to detail with the awareness of the overal shape of our entire aural experience.

In a sense, i feel that this work, from the beginning, has been pointing in this direction, with the sculpting of field recordings aiming to bring attention to the very core, the vibrational quality, the very architectural characteristic of the reality we experience as sound. Similarly, the use of five elements, borrowed from spiritual practice and TCM also points to the internal working of natural balance. Sound as a metaphor for the nature of reality. Everything is sound.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Résonance #8 [nt026]

Résonance documents a series of live improvisations on laptop. The performances feature field recordings and electronic elements, beats, and digital processing.

Location recordings include resonant spaces that add their own colour to the existing soundscape, sounds of the five elements (TCM, qi gong), natural and environmental sounds, found sounds etc.
The sound design focuses on sculpting the natural resonant frequencies of recorded sounds, as well as textural and gestural qualities.

The work is grounded in electroacoustic tradition and draws from experimental electronic music, with a strong focus on deep listening. Every performance is entirely improvised.

**

This is a rather nice recording of two sets, both performed in the Showroom café bar, as a series of solo gigs i did in support of a jazz/experimental night i was running in the cinema bar.

A direct recording from the desk, this recording has a really detailed, intimate quality. Electronic beats meet cut up field recordings in a surreal crash between sound worlds. Nothing is prepared in advance. The sets are woven together and improvised moment to moment. You can hear as i call up samples, loop a selection on the fly, apply effects or processing and match the beats. I like that DIY quality of experimental dance music done à-la-improv with EA flavouring and field-rec gallore. These sets are the best of both worlds, improvised to an audience of passing cinema viewers who had no idea what hit them. Great times. And of course, the omnipresent drones are sculpted for your ears (and guts), vibrating the hell out of your chakras, with five elements delicious resonant frequencies. What’s not to like.

Résonance #7 [nt025]

Résonance documents a series of live improvisations on laptop. The performances feature field recordings and electronic elements, beats, and digital processing.

Location recordings include resonant spaces that add their own colour to the existing soundscape, sounds of the five elements (TCM, qi gong), natural and environmental sounds, found sounds etc.
The sound design focuses on sculpting the natural resonant frequencies of recorded sounds, as well as textural and gestural qualities.

The work is grounded in electroacoustic tradition and draws from experimental electronic music, with a strong focus on deep listening. Every performance is entirely improvised.

**

And for something different, here are two sets performed on the same night, in the Showroom café bar.
I was running a night of jazz, improvisation and experimental music, and during that time, provided support for the groups by doing solo laptop sets. It was an opportunity for me to continue developing my sound, and try out my approach to electroacoustic improvisation in different contexts. The café is a busy and noisy place, so I adapted my sound and abstract narratives adding electronic elements and beats.

Field recordings and electronics slyly seep in the dense noise and chatter, and gradually take over as the set intensifies. Deep bass rumbles and beats. Accidental noises and voices become part of the soundscape. Things escalate. Beats overlap. A glimmer of light. Well, you’ll just have to listen. It’s a trip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Résonance #6 [nt024]

Résonance documents a series of live improvisations on laptop. The performances feature field recordings and electronic elements, beats, and digital processing.

Location recordings include resonant spaces that add their own colour to the existing soundscape, sounds of the five elements (TCM, qi gong), natural and environmental sounds, found sounds etc.
The sound design focuses on sculpting the natural resonant frequencies of recorded sounds, as well as textural and gestural qualities.

The work is grounded in electroacoustic tradition and draws from experimental electronic music, with a strong focus on deep listening. Every performance is entirely improvised.

**

These three live recordings from 2011 are good examples of how the work has evolved, gradually moving towards a minimal and meditative approach to electroacoustic performances.
We take the time to delve into the mood and narrative sequences offered by field recordings. Atmos tracks and resonant spaces frame environments where the five elements unfold and balance. Aspects of the previous series are carried over with sine tones that blend and interact with the resonant frequencies of natural sounds.

The recording process is also different, and works as a meditation in itself. And so the material recorded becomes more subtle, focusing on details that will blend into multiple layers in performance. Increasingly, it becomes obvious that the accidental convergence of sounds from different recordings occurs in a natural way – the music makes itself. This highlights the importance of using sounds that no agency other than nature itself created.
The world is sound, and all is music. I just let my meditations direct the microphones, in true art of the dérive, and let the moment inspire the sounds that are dealt in performance. How the layers communicate is magic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Résonance #5 [nt023]

Résonance documents a series of live improvisations on laptop. The performances feature field recordings and electronic elements, beats, and digital processing.

Location recordings include resonant spaces that add their own colour to the existing soundscape, sounds of the five elements (TCM, qi gong), natural and environmental sounds, found sounds etc.
The sound design focuses on sculpting the natural resonant frequencies of recorded sounds, as well as textural and gestural qualities.

The work is grounded in electroacoustic tradition and draws from experimental electronic music, with a strong focus on deep listening. Every performance is entirely improvised.

**

Three live recordings performed close to each other, as a series that uses as a starting point a very simple set of sounds. And yet, each performance is quite different from the others in feel and narrative. Both are inspired by the environment.

Sound phenomena, using interference patterns and beat frequencies, occupy an illusory space, other than recorded sounds. Field recordings take a step back and leave at the front the interaction of sine waves in sets that also related to the resonant frequencies of the field recordings.

From conditions arise new experiences. Ghost tones appear and disappear, only created by interactions at work in the sonic world that unfolds within your ears.

Those room recordings are a little noisy at times, but it gives a sense of the place each piece was set against.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Résonance #4 [nt022]

Résonance documents a series of live improvisations on laptop. The performances feature field recordings and electronic elements, beats, and digital processing.

Location recordings include resonant spaces that add their own colour to the existing soundscape, sounds of the five elements (TCM, qi gong), natural and environmental sounds, found sounds etc.
The sound design focuses on sculpting the natural resonant frequencies of recorded sounds, as well as textural and gestural qualities.

The work is grounded in electroacoustic tradition and draws from experimental electronic music, with a strong focus on deep listening. Every performance is entirely improvised.

**

Three performances that focus on a more minimalist approach, delving deeper into the texture and tones of field recordings. Natural sounds animate those ambient improvisations whose static colours modulate to the resonant frequencies of the five elements.

With each performance featuring new samples, the database i am building is gradually offering a richer selection from the five elements, and i am also developing the process of sculpting natural sounds, inceasingly focusing on specific tones, or generally simpler harmonic contents. This allows for a more precise use of sine waves as they interact with processed field recordings. The improvisations reveal the physical interactions of vibrations, creating beats and other sound phenomena in the performance space.

 

 

 

Résonance #3 [nt021]

Résonance documents a series of live improvisations on laptop. The performances feature field recordings and electronic elements, beats, and digital processing.

Location recordings include resonant spaces that add their own colour to the existing soundscape, sounds of the five elements (TCM, qi gong), natural and environmental sounds, found sounds etc.
The sound design focuses on sculpting the natural resonant frequencies of recorded sounds, as well as textural and gestural qualities.

The work is grounded in electroacoustic tradition and draws from experimental electronic music, with a strong focus on deep listening. Every performance is entirely improvised.

**

The third series is made of two performances recorded close together while on tour in the south of France. Both concerts were recorded by the venues, and i am very pleased to have high quality documents that are fairly representative of this early work.

While the database of sounds i can draw from is growing, i am able to delve deep into the character of each of the five elements and at the same time, present a whole range of tonal centers. The sculpting of natural sounds increasingly draws on the natural resonance of the source, while at the same time matches resonant frequencies of the body, used in sound healing – as proposed by the research of Leon Bence, Max Mereaux etc.

The addition of random electronic beats (reaktor) and live processing (granulation, spectral, etc.) gives the work a more experimental edge. Field recordings populate strange soundscapes where resonant spaces and different acoustics clash. We dive into the rich complexity of sounds of the five elements, observing textures from within and experiencing the entire universe in a grain of sound.

 

 

 

 

Résonance #2 [nt020]

Résonance documents a series of live improvisations on laptop. The performances feature field recordings and electronic elements, beats, and digital processing.

Location recordings include resonant spaces that add their own colour to the existing soundscape, sounds of the five elements (TCM, qi gong), natural and environmental sounds, found sounds etc.
The sound design focuses on sculpting the natural resonant frequencies of recorded sounds, as well as textural and gestural qualities.

The work is grounded in electroacoustic tradition and draws from experimental electronic music, with a strong focus on deep listening. Every performance is entirely improvised.

**

The second series has two medium length performances live in Bristol and Manchester. #

Moving on from Résonance #1 i have now started to build a database of samples while developing my approach to electroacoustic improvisation while working in France with other improvisers, musicians and dancers, visual artists etc. For a while, i stuck to a process by which i would produce new sounds unique to each performance, and as my database grew, i started to vary the material i could draw from as i was improvising.

Gradually, i could instantly call up on specific sounds, resonance or tones that i felt were needed at that point. So the sounds were not unique to the performance anymore, but each performance was increasingly shaped by the space and the audience, and my response to the experience.

 

The work moves between minimal suspended moments, textural intensity and ambient drones, following the narrative of featured soundscapes. Field recordings shift to glitch and noise and several sonic universes collide.

 

 

 

Résonance #1 [nt019]

Résonance documents a series of live improvisations on laptop. The performances feature field recordings and electronic elements, beats, and digital processing.

Location recordings include resonant spaces that add their own colour to the existing soundscape, sounds of the five elements (TCM, qi gong), natural and environmental sounds, found sounds etc.
The sound design focuses on sculpting the natural resonant frequencies of recorded sounds, as well as textural and gestural qualities.

The work is grounded in electroacoustic tradition and draws from experimental electronic music, with a strong focus on deep listening. Every performance is entirely improvised.

**

I have been thinking about this series for a while, and finally decided that it should appear all together in one place. Therefore, to release this on nexTTime seems a good idea. I have been focusing on preparing coherent series such as field recordings as ‘postcards’ and now live EA improvisations, and i think it is nice to have such documents that follow the evolution of this type of work.

Preparing those albums, i realised how much the sound and approach has changed over the years, and yet has kept a clear focus in the use of material such as field recordings, in relation to my research on resonant frequencies of spaces as well as objects. Here, we explore the sounds of key locations and their own character, how the sounds from the environment are sculpted by architecture, and as you know, i am very keen on reverb.

The study of resonant frequency does not stop here, and gradually, while my practice of qi gong and interest in healing modalities took me to look into Chinese Traditional Medicine, the use of field recordings increasingly shifted towards what became the central point of this work: balancing the five elements and finding in each a certain musical quality – textural, gestural, and of course, harmonic. Over the years, i developed a method to sculpt those sounds and this unique quality is represented in my solo performances. Gradually, the sculpting focuses on detail and the samples i produce get more minimal. At times, the work really homes in on beat frequencies and other sound phenomena that occur naturally, but the stripped down processing and the occasional use of sine waves allows such precision to work with specific tones that are natural (non tempered) and also relate to parts of the human anatomy.

On many levels, this work is an invitation to meditate on the natural world and how the elements relate to our own experience, and there is a strong concept thoughout that draws from many different traditions of healing. And yet, at the core, remains a dedication to improvisation and more experimental forms in electronic and electroacoustic practices.

 

 

The first series is made of short pieces improvised to artists’ films, or in collaboration with dance improv, and one special event dealing with the resonant frequencies of the theatre space (room harmonics), based on Alvin Lucier ‘sitting in a room’. The latter performance only uses material produced specifically for the event, recorded on site, following the process of room harmonics. To bring out the resonance of the Lantern Theatre, i used hand clapping as source, which seemed appropriate. The results of this recording session was then processed in various ways to provide a range of samples for performance.

 

 

 

Sounding Out Devon

This has been a very strange year indeed for everyone, and there were very few opportunities to escape to the country. So my sonic explorations have been very limited. And yet, this has also been an opportunity to go back to the roots of Sounding Out, and return to the type of environment where it all started.

Over the years, i have very much enjoyed my visits to amazing churches with grandiose acoustics, and chapels that have a very special quality. Both the resonance and the feel of those places have inspired me much. And now, with most buildings closed, i embraced a return to nature, and to the acoustics of the forest. Interacting with the natural world, its soundscape and gentle reverberant responses was the starting point to this series. It felt like a conversation. And i always like this kind of connection with the outdoors.
Sounding Out has always been about this, away from the studio or controled environment. And yet, remote chapels have been dominating my recordings, apart from a few much cherished caves. Those that really speak to me are rare. And so it is the same with forests, it is hard to find the right environment, away from noise pollution and into a unique sonic world.

During a quiet period at the end of the summer, Devon was so attractive, and a perfect opportunity to get away, away from people, and disappear into the moors and forests. Of course i had the saxophone with me, and regular practice was tricky while hiking and camping. So i started walking out into the dark forest in the evening to practice against bursts of wind and into the thick green canvas. i enjoyed it so much that i decided to record some of these. The recording conditions were difficult, but here are some examples below.

i was very lucky to find one chapel open, during my travels, and found it had a very sweet sound. so of course i spent a little time there, wrapped in the uplifting experience. And finally, at the end of the trip, i returned to the forestry above fernworthy reservoir and took a day visiting a number of locations within the same area, each with its own character, finishing with an improvisation at the top of a stone row, looking down across the valley and listening to entire melodic lines bouncing off rich canopies of trees and rolling back to me with a few seconds delay. Unfortunately, although this amazing effect was clear, it was also very subtle and did not get picked up on the recording. Still…
i hope you enjoy listening to the spirit of the forest, singing through the saxophone.

 

 

woody
alto saxophone, 10 september 2020
fernworthy forest, four locations [start of track, by assycombe brook]

 

 

bridge by the hill
alto saxophone, 10 september 2020
fernworthy forest, four locations [bridge]

 

 

off track
alto saxophone, 10 september 2020
fernworthy forest, four locations [track with opening in the trees below]

 

 

five trees
alto saxophone, 10 september 2020
fernworthy forest, four locations [track with opening in the trees below]

 

 

straight line
alto saxophone, 10 september 2020
fernworthy forest, four locations [stone row]

 

 

the ballad of passing forms
alto saxophone, 10 september 2020
fernworthy forest, four locations [stone row]

 

 

wavelets rising
alto saxophone, 10 september 2020
fernworthy forest, four locations [stone row]

 
 
 

 

a touch of light
alto saxophone, 03 september 2020
st raphael, hexworthy

 

 

entanglements
alto saxophone, 03 september 2020
st raphael, hexworthy

 

 

tread lightly
alto saxophone, 03 september 2020
st raphael, hexworthy

 
 
 

 

the trees swirling dance
alto saxophone, 02 september 2020
fernworthy forest, night time

 

 

solitary bird
alto saxophone, 02 september 2020
fernworthy forest, night time