Sonic Performance

A semi improvised piece of electroacoustic music, centralised around the real-time manipulation of field recordings. In addition an analogue synthesiser is used to create a disorientating and overwhelming auditory narrative, in which nature is suddenly destroyed and replaced by the artificial. Aesthetically, inspired by works such as Jeff Wayne’s: “War of the Worlds' ', David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive”, and Taro Yoshihara’s 2006 composition: “The Sealed Spell in the ruined palace on an isolated island”. Also inspired by live performances of acousmatic and electroacoustic music, particularly the FUJI acousmatic music festivals and Haruka Sumikama; both of which utilise the real time application of effects to sound objects.

Source Creation

To create the natural landscape that I planned to manipulate, I conducted a field recording in a rural suburban area, using a ZOOM portable recorder, taking short 2-3 minute recordings in different positions to capture a variety of sound objects. Afterwards, this content was edited down to a 1 minute texture that could be smoothly looped and crossfaded without breaking the listener’s immersion. One of these recordings can be found here: https://soundcloud.com/oscarrock/field-recording/s-nG7cJZc5pyA?

For the artificial sound design that would invade and overtake the field recording, I designed a pad sound on the KORG Microkorg XL. I elected to use a hardware synth to add a more analogue layer to the composition, the imperfections caused by the connection and system colouration added to the dissonance between natural and artificial. The experimentation of creating the pad sound can be found in the video on the left.

Hardware Setup

I am using a MIDI controller to alter parameters within the software elements of the composition. This controller allows me to control software instruments and assign 4 knobs to any parameter within vst plugins. During my first test performances, I noticed a lack of depth to the sci-fi character I wanted towards the latter end of the performance, it felt too static and one-note. I decided to implement a delay pedal that would take the input from the KORG synth before reaching my audio interface. The benefits of using a physical effects pedal instead of another software plugin on the input include less CPU load on my PC, zero latency between the korg input and the delay output, and is less footprint on my MIDI controller. This delay pedal created extra layers of sound to the one synth. Narratively, increasing the mix and feedback values helped visualise the invasion of nature becoming more drastic and more occupied by the artificial.

Software Setup

When it came to manipulating the field recordings in order to signify their invasion and mutation, I decided to use software vst plugins that would change their spatial, behavioural and tonal properties. For starters, I used a reverb plugin that was capable of having an infinite time decay so that the field recording could go from being very defined to this blanket of sound, almost as if it was being levelled and wiped out by something. On top of this, to further show the alien result audible towards the end of the piece, I used down-sample distortion, formant filtering, and a flanger. Adding this human quality with the filter, which was then overthrown by the disruptive quality of the distortion and flanger, created a very contradictory, distressing effect.

Test Performance

A key part of this process was practising when to focus on activating parts of certain equipment to effectively tell the story I wanted to tell. Each rehearsal would better expose to me the most compelling thread of interest for the piece, and therefore when to focus on certain pieces of equipment within my setup. To help with timings, I physically wrote down notes as a means of arranging the composition.

Final Performance