Quiet, Please

Started by Andrew McIntosh, April 29, 2013, 04:01:49 AM

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Dr Alex

I saw Toshimaru Nakamura few years ago in Belgrade. He played before Fennesz. His sound was almost pure silence. He play no-input mixing board and few delays. I have photo of his set somewhere.

Short video from that gig: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPbJgfzWuCk

HongKongGoolagong

Quote from: theotherjohn on June 21, 2013, 01:22:12 AM
Read in a local newspaper today about the phenomenon "Autonomous sensory meridian response" (or ASMR); quiet noise not only exists, but it also has a potentially large audience and following on YouTube etc.

I've been watching the amazing and marvellously perverted ASMR videos of binaural girl whisperers for quite a while now.

Andrew McIntosh

QuoteA commonly reported stimulus for ASMR is the sound of whispering.

I've got no idea why, but I hate whispering. Absolutely loath the sound. For some reason, it sounds smug and arrogant to me.
Shikata ga nai.

RG

Quote from: theotherjohn on June 21, 2013, 01:22:12 AM
Autonomous sensory meridian response"

Very interesting. This is something I've experienced for most of my life and I can even call up the sensation at will. The strongest sensations arise when I'm particularly moved by something like music. Mine is more of a spine tingle sensation rather than the head. I never thought to investigate to see if this was something others experienced, probably because it's a difficult thing to describe

RyanWreck

#19
When I want to listen to decent to good Microtonal and Lowercase I usually turn to 12k/Line artists http://www.12k.com/

Pjusk is very good, especially the "Sval" CD. Longform "drone noise" and restrained sound exploration. Modified field recordings stretched out to form ambient passages. 0/R - "Varied" is true Lowercase; the very delicate sound of manipulated sine waves and background clicks and beeps pulsating into almost a rhythm of short burst noise. Sébastien Roux - "Songs" is more of a free-improv, sound collage of noises and Electroacoustic samples, a few notes from Guitars, Pianos and Harps here and there spliced up and peppered minimally through the tracks, each song title showing which instruments were used i.e. "The Cello Song" or "The Harp and Contrabass Song". Two of my favorites of the 12k collection: the first is Kenneth Kirschner - "Filaments & Voids" four tracks spread over 2 CD's and 100% atmosphere. Silence is utilized heavily and perfectly through-out as the label notes state " Kenneth Kirschner focuses the listener's attention on the silence inherent in his sounds, and the sounds implicit in silence." The second is Simon Scott who released his first LP last year, titled "Below Sea Level". Blankets of smooth drones while the main backbone of the project, an electric Guitar, lazily picks away clean notes, string clicking, tapping, scraping in the most organic and non-electronic sounding way you can imagine a electronic artist being able to pull off. Awesome packaging as well:



Bloated Slutbag

#20
I've quite enjoyed recent work from Darius Ciuta, bettter known in these parts for his work with the (long defunct) Naj. Naj was... something special. Special enough to warrant investigation long after the project reached its terminus, and special enough even now to sustain my continued interest in Ciuta's quieter ventures. I'm not quite sure of the underlying philosophy at play, but what I often hear are "micro-elements" sharing equal prominence with sounds that might otherwise be expected to dominate the proceedings; eg a lengthy stretch of ominous classical music and/or disembodied voice floats through a field of close-mic'd clink, hiss, and rattle, anchored by a warmer, if all-but-imperceptible, atmospheric undertow. The often lengthy course is ever-changing, active, veering into unanticipated nooks and crannies, occasionally flitting, briefly, toward distant suggestions of the naj-like harshness. Some of this stuff has been released on labels like Mystery Sea.
http://archive.org/details/dariusciuta-hcs
http://thefieldreporterradio.bandcamp.com/track/the-field-reporter-radio-4-f-i-by-darius-ciuta

Su Ko Ra ranks among the quietest things I've heard. First exposure via a tape on Self Abuse, "Saturday Night Dance Date", which was actually pretty decent "quiet harsh noise", subdued if not given to relent  - though in later recordings the challenge was to discern the tape hiss from the "recorded" bits. This latter approach worked well in a live setting, at least for the mildly buzzed such as myself. One memorable performance amounted to, at best, near imperceptible hisses and pops - toward the end, at which point I was a little more nicely buzzed, the tension was pretty intense, waiting for that final pop...
The link below is the only one I could find via cursory search, which sounds like someone left a tape-recorder on in an empty room:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYN5jMZgTCU
Someone weaker than you should beat you and brag
And take you for a drag