[microsound] puff 'n stuff

[Bill Jarboe]

I like Pauline's idea of a sound lasting ten years.

  One easy way to accomplish this might be taking a sound which lasts  
100,000 years and time-scaling it 1/10.000th of its original length.

  Another solution lies in finding some creature or process which is  
likely to last another ten years and simply following them around  
with a microphone and converting the audible results to a low bit- 
rate mp3 (-sure this has been attempted before , drastically enough?).

Another aspect of the idea i find most cool is the comparison to an  
eternal flame ; brings to mind the auto de fé , and not only that: i  
was reading a mystery story by an obscure french author concerning a  
recalcitrant jew who refused to yield to an inquisitor in spain , yet  
that has nothing to do with the subject , does it?


   ( if you're really interested in the story , contact me and i'll  
find it for you; don't wish to describe texts for those who aren't  
interested.)


  Elaborating on the idea of time condensation however , opposed to  
time condescending ; what sound could you actually tolerate listening  
to for ten years? I'm thinking of the evolution of human beings  
taking 100, 000 years ( in the broadest sense) and the condensation  
corresponding to one's musical output over the last ten years, to be  
'sunk living into the horror of one's existence'  to rather crudely  
quote some symbolist poet; Tristan Corbiere perhaps?

  What i was producing ten years  ago sounds pretty damn good to my  
unclogged (uncle -logged?) ears , and i could certainly tolerate  
listening to that one member of lappetites , Eliane Radigue perhaps?   
-for that time span


http://www.lappetites.com/


Maybe it's just that i think of her works expressing  long  
durations , slow evolutions , stasis and renewals.

____


  In trying to wrap my mind around such a concept , thought of the  
sound of human evolution , or at least a model based on my  
understanding of human evolution. -considered using some sort of  
species which evolves and eventually dies away over the course of  
100,000 years , perhaps a strain of fly.

  That didn't interest me too much , and I wasn't any closer to  
finding sound. -thought of the big bang(from a human understanding)  
since most probably know what it is.  -looked for a bang and decided  
upon a smash from a snare drum ,


https://rcpt.yousendit.com/712761122/53603c12e80a3b59dbf8462660195544

this was converted to midi (midi-like?) data with the aubio note  
tracker and played with quicktime piano. The result was slowed down  
as much as possible then exported . The new .mid file was imported  
then slowed down once more.

  The result is a rather liberal interpretation of an expansion.


https://download.yousendit.com/dVlwUXVnYTI5bEFLSkE9PQ


  My main concerns are: I don't know if I'm making a midi file or a  
sound-file and, I'm a bit concerned over the large spaces or  
silences , effective as they are. Perhaps people's reactions ,  
humanity in general could serve to fill in the gaps , prolong the sound.

   (perhaps humanity in specific)


  -next step then is taking the lengthy sound-file , a realization of  
the expanded midi data , and playing that to the original snare drum;  
recording the result. For reasons of practicality I confined this  
stage to half an hour.

   The result of this endeavor is then pro-genitive of new midi data,  
in turn converted to sound.

  The silences aren't disturbing me as much




  There are enough of them to give a break now and then , it doesn't  
sound like something mechanised which goes on and on and on ( a  
common criticism of modern composition in books).

  I'm hearing some voices in the background.

   What is next?

   The same midi file is stretched as far as I am able and work on  
dynamics and arpeggiation.

    This is sounding ok. now , rather bridging the ultra-modern and  
the early classical for me...

  Oh, dear. I'm lying already. I could have extended this to a much  
longer duration. What I have now is the main notes of the beginning  
much farther apart and the duration of the piece corresponds to the  
realtime length of the file.

https://rcpt.yousendit.com/712786344/a62925dc402c05ec0c6fea349158ed5e

  Not to worry - the program is rejoined awhile later and subjected  
to slight spectral modifications, frequency inversion and even  
frequency selective time shifts.

  It looks rather like this:


http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ZreWk6gxtO8rrb7c8SciAg? 
feat=directlink


https://rcpt.yousendit.com/712790314/a5c184f9629c35347d15c55a6f3f95fd


   The same source audio-file was subjected to reverse order wavelet  
transformation.


https://rcpt.yousendit.com/712793314/1967eab0eb064961a9255431d5d0d461

On Jul 10, 2009, at 10:39 AM, Kim Cascone wrote:

> ok so some heads-up list related announcements:
>
> List Server:
>
> - we are changing list servers for both the microsound and microsound
> announce lists so there might be a slight hiccup when this takes place
>    - if anyone has trouble sending or receiving posts to the list  
> please
> contact me, John or Paulo
>
> =============
>
> Naked Lunch project:
>
> - Naked Lunch is looking good and now we can send the link around to
> radio, magazines or whoever
>    - some random quotes from NL would be cool to have and not that  
> hard
> to setup
>    - links in the page would be cool too
>
> =============
>
> 10 year Anniversary:
>
> - I'm checking the WIKI pages from time to time and see some  
> interesting
> ideas so far
> http://anechoicmedia.wikidot.com/microsound-anniversary
>
>  - if you have a proposal please add it there
>
>  - there is no budget for the anniversary celebration because
> .microsound is a self-sustaining list with no bank account and relies
> entirely on the kindness of strangers for labor and server space
>
> - any celebrations must be self funded and be entered on the Wiki  
> page I
> listed above so I can consolidate all the activities into one press  
> release
>
> - feel free to contact me if you have any questions:
> anechoicmedia at gmail.com
>
>