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Musical context
The
concept
album is based on the principle of
genre-morphic
modelling, the sound of the album ranges from rocknroll, 12 bar blues,
thrash
metal, sonic art, chaotic bombarding of sounds with influences from
house,
progressive rock, drum and bass and ballads love songs. I
used the term
entropic sonix on
the album to describe the way in which I attempted to use the sound in
the
sonic art pieces to laterally move the listener and blow them away. I
wanted to
mess with the proprioception of the audience, deploying an arsenal of
low
frequency jarring and sometimes soothing sound. I also used a simple
rule of thumb
“not to hard” as I didn’t want to always over load the listener, but to
give
them space to breath periodically between orgasms of sound.
The warm bass
sounds of pink
Floyd; chemical brother’s and prodigy inspired beats mangled, displaced
and
jux-apposed against a dark background of cybernetic culture mythology
and thematic
soundscapes. All these are an attempt to formulate a coherent
multimedia
experience that captivates the listener and brings them into the world
of
Gemini-critical mass. The title
of the concept album is a clue to double schizophrenic
nature
and disposition of its creator in its formulation as a multimedia
immersive
art, were reality, conspires with the actual and virtual mixed and
shredded in
a heart ache of melody, poly rhythm and animus. The albums
founded on the basic
principle of great simple songs inspired by a Beatles guitar book I
first
learned to play guitar on when I was 13. I soon learned the greatest
most
popular songs in history run along conventions of organization which
the Beatles
soon learned to extrapolate themselves, that regardless of what some
may say has
led the them to be more popular than MacDonald’s with countless no 1’s.
all the
songs on the concept album were written on guitar then shifted to
electronic or
acoustic rythemology. All the cover design and artwork was created by
me using
a body of my own artwork available on my web site.
http://medialab.freaknet.org/shem/
The
narrative
throughout the album borrows, challenges, and
explores key concepts derived from cyberpunk culture. William Gibbsons Neuromancer describing cyberspace, Bowies
song Saviour machine, Japanese manga movies such as AKIRA, ANIMAI and Blade
Runner, Total Recall, Terminator,
AI, Isaac azimuths I Robot,
Matrix. These will all inform the music within, as a mythological
cybernetic future. Starting with the
notion of cyberspace derived from the high culture mainstream and
working back,
I will explore and compare how Pierre levy, Brian Massumi and Marshall
Mcluhan
speculated on the technology and meaning of cyberspace and the role of
the body
in cyberspace, however cyberpunk culture glorifies embodiment,
disembodiment
and the virtual. The interest here lays with the academic methodology
behind
the ideological formats surrounding the cyberspace and Telematic senses
debate.
The essay will be informatively and exploratory in nature as cyberspace
and the
virtual body will be deconstructed away from the “lawn mower man”
Cyberpunk
conception of cyberspace, following marshal and Massumi and Pierre to
grasp the
current understanding of the role of the body in cyberspace and to
explore my
research questions. This is a
musical experiment of sonic expansion, a narrative
journey of acoustic cyberspace, designed to psychoacoustically affect
the
listener to participate in imagination and experience. This collection
of sonic
compositions will be wrapped around the cyberpunk genre but
Conceptualised as a
sonic mythology of an acoustic landscape of experience, rhythmically
moving the
listener through meticulously produced sound to kinaesthetically
manipulate the
listener’s proprioception. The music will
be made on computer and “live” instruments
ranging from guitar, violin, vocals, bass, percussion and FM sound
synthesis to
recorded samples. Analogue racks and digital effects will be used.
Recording
Music software such as sonic foundry, logic audio, cakewalk, fruity
loops, and
Winsound for synthesis, will be used. Ill
be highly processing the sounds and samples to create the sound palate
for the
over all album. These sounds will be transformed, manipulated, sliced,
mutated,
grinded down and extrapolated to describe sonically the soundscapes. I
will be
working past the conventions of 4x4 rhythms, progressively and
intrusively
breaking into breakbeat textures, but still not overloading the
listener. The
Electronic rhythms will be working up and down from 80bpm to 230bpm so
as to
stretch the temporal duration periodically in the album. Gemini
Critical
Mass is a Album of Music,
Sonic Art and Soundscape’s built around the concept and
phenomenology
of
cyberspace, Tele-Synesthesia, and the virtual. Using cyberpunk science
fiction
as the narrative and story line the album
sonically engineered through music genres, the sounds range from rock
roll 4x4
timing guitar to electronic free improvisation, with the subtle
soundscape’s
echoed and envisioned in our future post-industiral information age.
Using
both low frequency Sounds, bin- aural beats with
merging different rhythm structures to mess with the proprioception of
the
listener, The album seeks to transport the listener through the
acoustic cyberspace world of Gemini Critical-Mass.
I've been an Artist
and Musician for 8 years. I paint,
sculpt; create multimedia installations and more recently sonic art. I
play
guitar, piano, Sing and have played in bands blues, folk,
rock
roll and
experimental electronic music. My main research area of interest is
Synesthesia, (Greek, SYN=together +
AISTHESIS= perception) which is where
one sense becomes mixed with another. This subject area, play’s a big
part of
my continuing understanding of the connection between
how I see myself as a practicing artist in relation to my practice in
the
fields as a sonic artist and visual artist, and how different mediums
are related and connect. Before I’ve looked at how Synesthesia is the
psychological connection between these different sensory mediums and
its
relation to compartmentalised artistic practices such as painting,
sculpture
etc. This aspect of a link between the senses has been to me an area of
great
interest. As within current cybernetic culture and the ongoing
transition of
the information age, the interface between media and human has become
more and
more blurred. Within my research interest I have studied acoustics and
sound,
looking at the sound spectrum to ultra height frequency and its
physiological
effects on the human body. This interests me as a more unified approach
develops within cyberspace and immersive multimedia art forms. This
ideal of
how we experience cyberspace connects with Synesthesia and sound,
vision, and
requires further development in relation to expanding research and
development
between human to digital interface from the perspective of the body and
sense’s.
The Experimental
concept Album - Production
Synopsis
Ive created a Double Album Audio CD with 25 tracks
of highly
sonic music, with each tack working on central themes from cyberpunk
culture.
The concept album will have a visual sleeve of artwork ill make to
create a
world and vision so as the finished product will be a complete package.
I’m
trying to create a visual, sound multimedia experience which will
includes this
internet website to create an immersive mythology. The music has been
made on computer and “live” instruments
ranging from guitar, violin, vocals, bass, percussion and FM sound
synthesis to
recorded samples. The album was produced within a computing environment
using sonic foundry, logic audio, cakewalk, fruity
loops, and
Winsound for synthesis, will be used. Ive
be highly processing the sounds and samples to create the sound palate
for the
over all album. These sounds have been transformed, manipulated,
sliced, mutated,
grinded down and extrapolated to describe sonically the soundscapes. I
been trying to
work past the conventions of 4x4 rhythms, progressively and intrusively
breaking into breakbeat textures, but still not overloading the
listener. The
Electronic rhythms will be working up and down from 80bpm to 230bpm so
as to
stretch the temporal duration periodically in the album.
Ive been
focusing on rhythmic ambience and production techniques in subtle
templating
sounds creating the soundscapes, with emphasis on navigation of genre
from
progressive rock, folk, blues and pure rocknroll to electronic music,
house,
trance, industrial to physiologically affect the audience. The African
diasporic drumming rhythm textures of Mediterranea, black America
and the eastern culture have been engineered together through
polyrhythm
production splicing. looking at other concept album’s and multimedia
CD’s and
the methods used by other concept album makers such as the Beatles
“White album”, War of the Worlds,
white noise, Peter Gabriel, Eno as well as film soundtracks independence
day, predator .
I wrote all the songs for the
album, I start with just a
simple acoustic guitar, transpose the key and change the tempo or
exchange the
sounds to create different genres. These songs subject matter will run
along
as a
narrative story, but also stand strong when heard by themselves as
individual
tracks. The tracks have also been produced
as to bleed into one another to create a conceptual space and depth.
This is a musical experiment of sonic
expansion, a
narrative
journey of acoustic cyberspace, designed to psychoacoustically affect
the
listener to participate in imagination and experience. This collection
of sonic
compositions are wrapped around the cyberpunk genre but Conceptualised
as a
sonic mythology of an acoustic landscape of experience, rhythmically
moving the
listener through meticulously produced sound to kinaesthetically
manipulate the
listener’s proprioception.
Theoretically
informed
The narrative throughout the album
borrows,
challenges, and
explores key concepts derived from cyberpunk culture. William Gibbsons Neuromancer describing cyberspace, Bowies
song Saviour machine, Japanese manga movies such as AKIRA, ANIMAI and Blade
Runner, Total Recall, Terminator,
AI, Isaac azimuths I Robot,
Matrix. These all inform the music within, as a mythological
cybernetic future.
The
new technological environments of virtual reality and cyberspace
confuse the
boundaries between internal and external worlds, creating
the
illusion that internal and external
realities are one and the same.
(Cyberspace/Cyberbodies/Cyberpunk p144)
Musical context
The concept album's based upon
cyberpunk science fiction culture and on the principle of genre-morphic
modelling, the sound of the album ranges from rocknroll, 12 bar blues,
thrash
metal, sonic art, chaotic bombarding of sounds with influences from
house,
progressive rock, drum and bass and ballads love songs. I
used the term entropic sonix on
the album to describe the way in which I attempted to use the sound in
the
sonic art pieces to laterally move the listener and blow them away. I
wanted to
mess with the proprioception of the audience, deploying an arsenal of
low
frequency jarring and sometimes soothing sound. I also used a simple
rule of
thumb “not to hard” as I didn’t want to always over load the listener,
but to
give them space to breath periodically between orgasms of sound.
The warm bass sounds of pink
Floyd; chemical brother’s and prodigy inspired beats mangled, displaced
and
jux-apposed against a dark background of cybernetic culture mythology
and
thematic soundscapes. All these are an attempt to formulate a coherent
multimedia experience that captivates the listener and brings them into
the
world this acoustic cyberpspace .Gemini critical mass is the
title
of the concept album and a clue to double schizophrenic genre-morphing
nature
and disposition of its creator in its formulation as a multimedia
immersive
art, were reality, conspires with the actual and virtual mixed and
shredded in
a heart ache of melody, poly rhythm and animus. The album was
founded on the basic
principle of great simple songs inspired by a Beatles guitar book I
first
learned to play guitar on when I was 13. I soon learned the greatest
most
popular songs in history run along conventions of organization which
the
Beatles soon learned to extrapolate themselves, that regardless of what
some
may say has led the them to be more popular than MacDonald’s with
countless no
1’s. all the songs on the concept album were written on guitar then
shifted to
electronic or acoustic rythemology. All the cover design and artwork
was created
by me using a body of artwork and nw stuff availble on this
site. Home
Discography
and sound influences
Robert Johnson-cross road blues,
Beatles-white album, Oasis-don’t believe the truth,
Electric light orchestra-don’t bring
me down. Doors-greatest hits, War of the worlds-Jeff Lynne,
Hawkwind-album called electric
tepeePink Floyd- division bell, Genesis- genesis
(home by the sea), Chemical brothers, Brian Eno,
Prodigy-start the dance and fire
starter, John cage, Delia Derbyshire-DR Who stuff
plus
bbc workshop, Psi trance/house/acid-house,
Soundscaping-microsound, Neil young-hey hey my my,
Deathmetal-earth tone 9/cradle of
filth, Keith jarret–nice piano stuff, Blade
runner theme tune, Frontline assembly-trk called
synthetic forms & gun, Muse-ALBUM-origin of
symmetry-bliss, sunburn, Jeff Buckley- hallayoya,
Radio head-“creep” and “the bends”. The cure-more than this,
Sex pistols.
Isolated key theory’s
conceptualised in the Album Gemini Critical
Mass
Artificial
intelligence----------------------------------------UFO-Phenomena
(Alien abduction)
Tele-Synesthesia---------------------------------------------------------------Secret
societies
The Cyberspace
matrix----------------------------------------------------------Virtual
bodies
Global Digital
culture-----------------------------The urban metropolis
aesthetic (Digital Nexus)
Esoteric
knowledge--------------------------------------------------------Cyberpunk
distopia |
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