soundscapes
-
On The Sounds Of Justice
A few weeks ago I was part of a jury for a criminal trial. The trial took nine days, and I had ample opportunity to listen–not just to all the legal stuff, the arguments, the evidence, but to the sounds of voices in the courtroom and in the jury deliberation room. Court proceedings are like musical Continue reading
-
Strange Mechanisms: On Entrainment And Running To Music
“…the music, the words of the mottoes, the steps of the dance, trigger the strange mechanism.” — Jean Rouch in Gilbert Rouget, Music and Trance (1985:181) Yesterday I ran the NYC Half Marathon (in a time that qualified me for the NYC Marathon–yes!). One of the things I noticed along the route was the presence Continue reading
-
On Nostalgia And The Voice Of Michael McDonald
I’m in the grocery store, staring at the fish offerings, when a subtle wave of melancholy washes over me. I’m restless and keep moving, eyeing products on the shelves, looking for a particular milk brand–but I just can’t shake this feeling. Since when is grocery shopping such an emotional experience? The milk and some odds Continue reading
-
On The Soundscapes Of Le Quattro Volte
Le Quattro Volte (2011) is a riveting, faux documentary-style meditation on death, (re)birth, the relationship between humans and the natural world, sound and time. Directed by Michelangelo Frammartino, the film follows the repetitive daily life of an elderly goat herder as he goes about his work in a small rural Italian town. The man doesn’t Continue reading
-
On Max Neuhaus: The Sound Installation In Times Square
If you walk over the metal grating smack in the middle of the pedestrian island between 45th and 46th street where Broadway and 7th Avenue meet, slow down a little and listen closely to the space beneath your feet: you’ll notice a subtle shift in the soundscape around you. There is a mysterious low-pitched humming Continue reading
-
Sports On TV As Ambient Sound
In our apartment we “watch” a fair amount of European soccer (that’s real football for you fans of American football). I put the word “watch” in quotation marks because for me, the games are on as much for their sound as for their visual action. Don’t get me wrong: watching the games unfold and seeing the physical ballet of the Continue reading
-
On Making Music Tangible
“How physical is music?” asks Clive Bell at the outset of a recent article in Wire magazine on the English musician Richard Skelton. Part of what makes Skelton unique is his approach to trying to make music making a more physical thing than its evanescent sounds might suggest. Thus, the composer-musician embraces a unique recording process: he Continue reading
-
Microsoundscapes In Sylvain Chomet’s The Illusionist
For me, there is something magical in just about all animation in how it abstracts reality and transforms it into something other–something more vivid and thus more hyperreal. Sylvain Chomet’s movies The Triplets Of Belleville (2003) and The Illusionist (2010) partake in this tradition while also bringing new things to the viewer’s attention, including, surprisingly enough, a Continue reading
-
Glenn Gould’s The Idea Of North
In honor of all the cold weather lately, I take the opportunity to revisit one of the only odes of the North (and the cold) that I know of–I’m speaking of course about Glenn Gould’s radio documentary, The Idea of North. Gould is most famous as a pianist who renders the keyboard music of J.S. Continue reading
-
Heston Blumenthal On Multisensory Experiences
The self-taught English chef Heston Blumenthal, owner of The Fat Duck restaurant and famous for pushing the bounds of cookery, is interested in how sensory context affects our experience of food. In a recorded statement of his philosophy available for listening (as an MP3 file) on his website, Blumenthal notes that even sound can play an important Continue reading
brettworks 
You must be logged in to post a comment.