higher order ambisonics
listen on bandcamp
What layers of meaning remain when the transparency of a sound recording is intentionally stripped away? Skin and Siren poses a response to this question in its treatment of recordings from percussionist Ingar Zach and field recordings made in Oslo in the Spring of 2022.
The work presents dreamlike passages alternating between the corporeal residue of performance (Zach) and a fractured city soundscape. Filtered and pitch-shifted resonances from the snare drum and timpani create a harmonic frame for much of the work in addition to resonances extracted from bells ringing at Oslo City Hall.
Skin and Siren is about finding beauty in absolute chaos, and losing yourself in a moment by becoming present in the transcendental meditative sense. Rather than presenting sound sources is raw states, I found that my digital transformations highlighted the ephemera of the scenes, like the tactility of small impulses and emergence of tonal shades. Between periods of being swept away by such fragmented pictures, one encounters concentrated, powerful sonic totalities of high contrast—encapsulating the way that time implodes in moments of becoming present and expands into vast spaces of mind and body.
ROBERT SEABACK 