My first time working in surround sound with Spatial music this year resulted in a pretty cool track called "Are You Even Listening?". You can listen to the full track "here."
Structure: It uses the "cocktail party effect" to create a sense of chaos and confusion as there are too many voices surrounding the listener; all voices appearing to be important and unintelligible as they sound at the same level and shift from speaker to speaker. As the top end of these voices start to drop off and fade away sporadically, a very loud, very clear whisper tells the listener to "focus" again. The track eventually drifts off into a layered, electro-orchestral piece of music, using synthesisers, strings, drum machines and field recordings. The music builds to a climax and suddenly cuts off to the voice again reminding you to listen to the conversations, asking in the end as everything else fades away "are you even listening?" (roll credits). Intent: For me, this is an audio insight into what it's like having ADD or ADHD. I was inspired by the interesting, personal Acousmatics assignment one of my friends made last semester, so I pushed myself this semester to create a piece that was more personal and philosophical. I wanted people to ask "what was that about" and discuss what they heard, how they interpreted it and how they related to it. Unlike most of my lyrical music, I wanted to make people think a little more than feel (as its an interesting topic that many people may have experience with). Process: The process behind it was fairly structured - I knew how the narrative of the track would play out and I knew the steps to get there e.g. loaning out a field recorder and recording a couple of dinner parties with my friends. However, there were a few rewrites along the way. Halfway through creating the musical section, I scrapped it and started fresh again. It felt boring and familiar like I wasn't pushing myself. So rather than doing a purely acoustic instrumental piece, I took a completely different approach which started by using synthesisers and "non-musical sounds". Yet again, I drew a lot of inspiration from my peers and their electronic music backgrounds.
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Artist SummaryI'm a WA Fremantle based singer-songwriter / composer. Here, you can have a gawk at my studies, compositions and performances. Archives
August 2022
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