Tag: EL2

I am now preparing for the show that I will be mainly using as the content for the creation of my sound peice. I have included the songs I have been working on as previously described including other new music. The structure of the performance is first to shock and destabilize the audience, to rip away their feelings of control and understanding of the space and use the sonic intensity to ellicit visceral reactions within the audience. This overwhelming pressure is then guided through more structured albeit equally intense songs that act as guides through the emotions and intensity of the performance. At the end of the performance I am playing the song that blends both ambient ethereal soundscapes and visceral, violent sound design to imply the completion of the emotional process of transmuting chaotic feelings and events into something more intergrative. I have decided to play a Justin Beiber song at the very end to act as a reward and celebration of the completion of this process, and embody the moment of relief and euphoria that arrives when one makes it to the end. I belive that with the sonic structure of the show, I can capture a shifting dynamic in audience participation and their evolving presence in the performance through screams or comments that may come through the audio recording.

I have composed my peice so that it links short clips recorded from my performance and is digitally manipulated using the same effect racks that went into the production of the music played at the show. I feel that the untreated and exposed feeling of the recordings is only emphasized when occasionally processed through digital means, fluctuating from the physical to the synthetic. In the recording you can hear screams of excitement and exhileration, my raw vocals over the distorted sound of bass, and the general presence of the individuals present in the room. I feel that this composition embodies my discussion of electronic music’s potential when employing the body as a tool to reclaim and rethink presence and social relationships. It is also a clear reflection of my growth as an artist as my second year of the sound arts course comes to its conclusion.

SPRAWLL is my conception of a punk/hardcore song but infused with synthetic sound design that could echoes imagery found in the anime Evangelion and other esoteric sci fi media. I want the production to sound as if it is simulating an inorganic body under crisis, as if the frontman of a hardcore band was moshing and stage diving but their body was made of steel, loose wires, and malfunctioning electronics. Over this I am delivering my vocals in visceral screams. The primality of the vocals with the synthesized chaos of the production creates a framework for me to introduced unprompted and unpredictable body movement and performance. I want this song to be able to create new pathways in the room as I move in it, and disengage the audience with their feeling of control and understanding of the space they occupy. With the intention of providing catharsis and pathways through this fear and chaos later in the performance, I believe using SPRAWLL at the beggining of the performance properly sets up the emotional arc I am trying to manifest for myself and those participating in the performance.

SKULL THEFT uses the 4×4 structure of a classic 2000’s edm song akin to artists like Deadmau5. Yet each timed hit of the kick and bass is heavily processed with vocoder and signal distortion to make this structure feel violent while still cultivating a hypnotic feeling that informs a universal rhythym among those who hear it. Amongst these distorted drums I used a soft vocal tone that is meant to feel seductive and indifferent, with lyrics that explore the bodies relationship to the elements of the music as they are occuring. I intend for this song to have the feeling of a classic EDM anthem but warped in a manner that makes it feel like it is occuring within a hellscape manifested in films like hellraiser. My intention in performing this song is so transform the space after playing extremely choatic unstructured and “scary” music is to invite people to cathartically release the tension developed by the previous songs and begin to find a liberating rhythym within the overwhelming intensity of the music that comes before it. This is to allow people to lean into the intensity of the moment and their own feelings through dance rather than escape from it by retreating further into their minds.

For my sound piece I intend to collect recordings from my upcoming performance and digitally manipulate them in order to emphasize the role of my body in contrast to the electronic medium that produced the music being informed to explore the notion of physical presence within electronic music performance. I am working on two new songs for the show one titled “SKULL THEFT” and another, “Sprawll” both songs feature my voice as the only virtually untreated and natural element amongst extremely distorted sonics and untraditional sound design. I hope that my performance of these songs incites reactions of the audience through my performing them in a confrontational and embodied manner using body contact and movement as the main medium of transmission. Hearing the screams of the audience, my own voice, and the extra dimension of digitally manipulating these recordings will act as a journal and temporal examination of my physical bodies role in performance as a central pillar within my practice.