soundscapes
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On Beginning Music Not With Silence
Consider an idea: begin a piece of music not with silence, but with a soundscape from nature playing through your speakers or headphones. Use this soundscape not as a part of your piece or the piece itself but as a springboard for the first sounds you’ll make or use, the first first chords you’ll play, the first beat you’ll Continue reading
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Three Significant Soundscapes
Count them — twelve rickshaws outside the theater perched like metal birds bell polyrhythm chimes feel it — organ music inside the headphones pulsing to the footsteps drone notes divided vibrate — bass booms around the passing car invisible halo kick drum and bass currency music’s chump change. Continue reading
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Wind Music
Occasionally this time of year, when the evenings are warm and breezy and I’m walking the dog down a quiet neighborhood street late at night, I notice the sound of wind in the trees and stop to look and listen. If you look up, you see the wind’s twisting upwards path upon the oscillating tree Continue reading
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Running Music
(Listening on headphones recommended.) Continue reading
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Insect Thrumming As Deep Music: On David Rothenberg’s “Bug Music”
“One sound can be enough if it repeats enough enough enough times so the meaning becomes subservient to the sound”–David Rothenberg, Bug Music (114) There is a powerful idea behind David Rothenberg’s spirited recent book, Bug Music: How Insects Gave Us Rhythm And Noise, which is this: listening to the rhythmic and buzzing sounds of Continue reading
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On Music In Its Context: Noise Musicians Improvising In The Subway
The Union Square subway station in New York City is a pretty loud place. As the N, R, L, 4, 5, and 6 trains pull into the station there’s some serious, 90-plus decibel metallic screeching happening when the cars hit their breaks and come to a stop. Given this noisy soundscape, I was both surprised Continue reading
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On The Sounds Of Finance
I had been meaning to make a field recording of an ATM for a while, so last week, mid-transaction and realizing that I had forgotten yet again to hit record on my phone/recorder, I set a reminder for this week. When this week arrived I was ready to go! On this recording you hear me Continue reading
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