Guest writer Felicity Clark, November 2000.

Adventures in Modern Music

Bringing it out if the closet, guest writer Felicity Clark, investigates the persistent 'Sound Art' wave, born of Auralogists of the 1800's and embraced by the 20th century drug-culture.

As you walk into the darkened church-hall the soup of frequency closes I around you. Figures move in the shadows, occassionally tripping a stategically placed sensor. In the centre of the room satelitte structures - man-sized and Triffid-like whirl unweldingly. An eerie luminescence fills the room, leaving you vulnerable in the umbra. A shadow moves, a sensor is activated; the Triffid swings towards you, blinding you with immobilising white light, the dull hum transmuted to a searing, high pitched scream, siren like and irresistable. Then the satellite moves on...

Once upon a time, all music was performed live. Stories were stored and passed between mistrels who performed as a means of constructing and defining our existence. The advent of notation allowed a language to define sound within certain parameters; those who understood the language could then replicate the performance as time allowed. It wasn't until the invention of the wax recording cylinder that the audible aspects of a performance could be captured and played back.

Sound Art is the genre for our Post-Modern culture. Rock is dead - our AD media society dictates that we can no longer be inspired by something so static, we must be overwhelmed by art and pop-culture, we need a device to ethrall, something to induce a productive state, and purge the senses. As it stands, all forms of classical and jazz music relate to a system of predefined sounds; perhaps, then, sound art is the only true music of the future - it is primarily based on experimenting with forms, instead of just using forms of different media. It is not even entirely music.. it is a multidimensional, irresistable virus!

Sound Art, like any other music, or art, lives in the gap between two extremes: from sensual, intricately engineered immersive aural landscapes, to an abrasive melange of high frequency, highly amplified, thoroughly improvised, gut-wrenching noise, with various permutations along the way - whatever the form, sound art is defined to be an all-sensory experience. There are also variations in style as well as sound: each artist has a particular stylistic manner, and it is not uncommon for an audience to have to shop around for the exacr sound they are passionate about. For ease in understanding, three broad groups have been defined. These consist of Site-Specific, Sound Sculpture, and Sonic Expressionism.

An incredibly popular genre amongst sound artists is Site-Specific work. Here, works are created to be displayed in a particular environment; the pieces utilise a defined environment to facilitate the development of sound. Here the placement of the sound source is very important, if each sound comes from a different point in space, the viewer becomes increasingly aware of the three dimensionality of music, it becomes a spatial event and the audience begins to interact with the space, just as the music does. With multipoint sound and sychronicity between music and architecture, the listener is invited to become very active in the space - by moving around they can each create their own personal mix - due to the individual acoustics of each space, the performances differ; the sound is never the same in any two places in a room. Visual elements often form a major part of the work; some are confronting and haywire, whilst others are minimalist or worked in darkness. They create the contxt for a sound that would be entirely devoid of meaning if recorded; the interpretation is specific to the site.

Canadian sound artist Maryanne Amacher uses her knowledge of Psych Acoustics (the way sound is heard and interpreted) to create installations where sound from one architectural space in New York is replaced by sound from an exact replica of the space in Paris. She also creates sound sketches designed to affect the ear canals, which she calls 'music for the third ear'. The sound itself is not the attraction; instead it is the brain's interpretation of what it hears that is the music.
Another site specific artist is John Cage and his infamous ' 4"32 ' piece: a pianist sits motionless at a piano for the alloted time - the emphasis is on audience becoming aware of the surroundings through absense of expected stimulus

In what is described as Sound Sculpture, an artist designs and manipulates machinery for development of sound. This process is popularly believed to be the advent of 'recognised' sound art, and was first accredited to an obscure adjunct to the Surrealists - the Futurists designed nose machines that, in the words of helmsman Luigi Russolo, produced sound with the intention of 'reminding us of the brutality of life': Uluatori (howlers), rombatori (roarers), crepitatori (cracklers), stropicciatori (rubbers), scoppiatori (bursters), ronzatori (hummers), gorgogliatori (gurglers) and sibilatori (whistlers) were built for their sound. This theme has carried through and can be seen in today's Einsturzende Neubauten's use of junk metal and simple motors to create post-industrial symphonies. On a slightly more modern note, sound/performance artist Akira Rabelais has harnessed cutting edge technology to further the Futurists' innovation: in the lead up to a performance, Rabelais uses computer programming to create one-off, interactive sound modules that are run throughout the performance, and can be purchased by audience members as a record of the show.

Finally, the style most commonly associated with recorded artists is Sonic Expressionism. Here there is no visual element to the music; it is primarily the audio-based utilisation of sound as a palette for the elucidation of conceptual ideas. An example of this process is Coil's 'Time Machines' album in which a constantly shifting series of inetrlocking tones create a mantra for mediation; certain listeners have asserted this album allows them the ability to lose or gain time.
In Brainlego's 'New Words for Old Magick', field recordings are altered, synthesised and reconstructed in a painted collage of sound that attempts to make sense of our chaotic post-modern society by turning the concept of environmental synthesis back into the world.

True to today's society, there is an ocular component to the final product. Innovative packaging of media; the use of mp3 to expand the albums conventional length; and the use of mixed media CDrom components afford artists the chance to compete in the technology race, as well as enticing buyers and collectors. For example, Japan's Aube uses a specific item for the construction of his limited edition releases and packages an example of this with the release, which are now highly prized and sought after items.

With so much choice in style and sound, it is not surprising that there are myriads of varying combinations and levels of intensity in a individual city alone, and a single style can rarely be attributed to one artist. A prime example of an artist bridging the gaps between all three sound art disciplines is Brisbane composer Andrew Kettle.

Drone 9

In terms of site specific work, perhaps his most notable performance is 'Drone 9' which saw a collaboration between KETTLE and another local experimental artist, SEO. Performed in an eerie concrete tunnel on the 9th of the 9th 1999, Kettle created ambient drones and beatless atmospheric soundscapes for 9 hours, from 9pm onwards. This work is essentially specific to the acoustics of the tunnel, as speakers were positioned at either end of the space, and sounds reverberated and thundered off the bare surface; an aural experience that cannot be captured on any digital recording, stereo or otherwise. The work in particular was also 'time-specific': the 9th of the 9th 1999 was rumoured worldwide to be the date of the apocalypse, and so with reference to the artists' feelings towards this allegation, the concepts culminated to form a significant event for musical connoisseurs, both sceptics and then-believers.

Sound Sculpture has had a long and varied existence within KETTLE performances. In a recent production, Gratings, Kettle created instances of harmonic unity and chaotic dissonance with homemade conceptual mixed media which fedback when manipulated around a television screen. Building such elaborate devices has long since been the work of Kettle, as he enjoys the conceptual challenge and feels that the hands-on approach brings him 'closer to his art', as well as achieving a very desirable aural experience. Currently he is 'designing bracelets.. bracelets which are made of.. electronic kids organs, but everything is on a slider, instead of keys, so you can have this whole 5 octave key on a slider, so that when you pull your thumb away from your hand it moves the slider'.

Gratings

One of Kettle's more conceptual works, in a large line of such albums, is the recent release, Lotto. 'Over the years you collect so many sounds thinking that one day you'll be able to use them somehow, and so Lotto was almost like a 'best sounds of' concept CD. I collected all these sounds and turned them into short tracks; the idea is that you stick the CD in your machine and put it on Random Play, then you play Lotto using the track numbers - great fun!'

True to the rule, such sonic expressionism must these days include a visual aspect. 'People just won't buy plain CD boxes, so the challenge is to come up with something innovative every time' - no matter how good the music inside is, buyers will always be swung by the visual element and any added extras on the outside. These days Kettle favours 3" CDs over 5" CDs - they are somewhat of a novelty, having not yet permeated the shelves of mainstream record stores or recording companies; also there is often an element of mutli-media programming burnt onto his releases, which allows the listener to become immersed in their own interactive personal performance on their home computer. Kettle spends hours packaging CDs in anything from supermarket catalogues and gore photos, to metal tins and elastic bands.

Kettle is a prominent character in Brisbane sound art, having been on the scene since the early 1990's. He has forged great networks for artists both interstate and overseas, and now has a successful record label 'Kettle'. As both an artist and an ambassador, Kettle has much to say about the opportunities for experimentation in Queensland and the current state of the scene in Brisbane: 'in Brisbane I don't tend to think there is an audience; it's more a peer group of people who want to have a relationship with the theme or the music or the artist, or they are an artist themselves, or they could potentially become artists - the idea of an audience coming into a new music performance and leaving without being at all encouraged or enthusiastic to do something, I just don't think that exists.'

'Sound art is inspired by so many things, mysticism, magick, alchemy, literature, physics, everything and they're all entrenched in popular culture. It is music for the intellectual, both educated and self-made, which means anyone can be a part of it. I would like to think that my work is a reaction to post-modernism and post-humanism.. it looks at the human experience and accentuating, encouraging and making people aware of their senses, which makes it accessable.'

'People with a passion about art will go and see new art.. It's people from a whole lot of genres. We get people from film show up and say 'yeah, I'd love to do this for the start of a soundtrack..' Anyone can be involved in both the audience and the artistic side, you are only limited by your imagination, and according to Kettle, it will pay off both mentally and financially; 'there's a whole gamut of commercial opportunities out there. Sound artists have been given commissions for Expo '98, software launches and movie soundtracks. It's just unstoppable.'

And the future of sound art? "I once said in an interview that the future of sound art was pretty bad considering 85% of the population listen to the sounds of airconditioners and traffic nose for 85% of their time.. so at the moment I'm exploring electromagnetic radiation as a sound source. It's beyond your senses, but you can hear it through an inductive pickup, so you can hear the remote control, the microwave, even though you can't see them - it's taking it out of it's context so that an audience can appreciate it, without knowing what makes the sound.. and I can say, 'this is what you listen to; this is your life.''