Listening Differently

I had a conversation with Wendy Cook last night at a Philip Jeck gig in Lancaster about Soundonation and about sound in general.

Wendy sent me a recording of herself ironing a shirt - 'I love the sound an iron makes when you stand it back up and it sighs as if it's exhausted' which is such a fantastic image in itself. We talked about the notion of why we filter out certain sounds above others and the emotional response to sound. I told her that the really interesting thing so far has been when donators have told me their emotional attachement to the sound they sent. It adds an extra depth to the sound and gives an implied narrative to the project as I make little artistic connections between sounds. It will be interesting to see what becomes of the 'story' as we progress.

Wendy told me about a brilliant book by the ever wonderful Machinefabriek that you maybe interested in.....


A self published book about the beauty of environmental sounds. 72 pages (A6) that will (hopefully) inspire you to listen differently...

This book costs 12 euro including worldwide postage - http://www.machinefabriek.nu/

reviews in FIELD MUZICK - A collection of short texts and suggestive phrases about listenting of everyday sounds, about to hear them different, as kind of music. One of the basic ideas of fieldmuzick as labels. The 72 pages of the book contains texts from over 40 authors. I only know Taylor Deupree and Ezekiel Honig. But it's not important. The writers describe feelings of listening to everyday sounds emmbedded between suggestive phrases and words. It's really inspiring.

PS Philip Jeck was brilliant btw

First arrivals

So I've received my first dozen or so soundonations. A poem from Jim in Wales, some field recordings from Pat in Ireland, bits of music and a cat purring from Phill in Barrow, some great kaossilations from Alexx in Manchester, a song from Adi in Sheffield and the sound of ironing from Wendy in Lancashire

Why start Soundonation?

After around 15 years of working with loops, field recordings, electroacoustics, doing remixes and the like and getting into improvisation more and more I've become increasingly aware and interested in the reasons we make the choices we do in creating music. Why do we choose a particular chord, why do those 2 sounds work together, why did I do that when they played that?

I improvise a lot in creating my music - improvise, edit, improvise around in circles, removing bits I don't like till I arrive at a piece I suddenly think is 'finished'. Repeat till you have something you feel is worth releasing. I wonder why I go down certain routes while others close themselves off. I find improvising a great way to getting tracks started. mmm starting points??

Starting points are always things of great interest, why does something jump out and evolve into a piece of music, it's a quick process, we select the sounds we like in an instant and disregard those we don't just as quickly. I often do a round of field recordings to start a project and edit out bits I like which become my building blocks. Do I have an aesthetic that makes me choose certain sounds? Probably...

And so I thought it would be interesting to try and bypass this starting point and throw it open to chance and ask people to donate sounds to me and build the album purely from donations. This in itself I find an interesting prospect - who will give me something for nothing? I'm asking for you to give me sounds so I can make an album to sell and keep the money for myself - why should you? Answers on a postcard to the usual address..... I'm hoping you will because the project is interesting, because you're kind, genorous, thought it might be fun to see what I do with it, you may even want to send a 'curve ball' and see if I will use it...

Well if it is of interest and you do want to send me something email me at info@shaunblezard.com - subject 'sound donation'

cheers

Shaun