Tag Archives: music

Chris Watson Week pt. 05

El Tren Fantasma

“Take the ghost train from Los Mochis to Veracruz and travel cross country, coast to coast, Pacific to Atlantic. Ride the rhythm of the rails on board the Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México (FNM) and the music of a journey that has now passed into history.”

El Tren Fantasma is Chris Watson’s latest release. It documents a historic train journey across Mexico on a route that’s no longer in use. This work stands out because he has used extensive processing to transform the work into a linear documentation to a rhythmic and textural exploration of the geography, architecture, and psyche of this journey. Indeed ‘The Phantom Train’, the english translation, needs no further explanation because such a title invokes the imagination from a mere reading.

Chris Watson will be visiting Scarborough Campus!

Monday 2nd December

11:30am

PS3

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Gabriella Scanio – Field Recording compilation

I have received the first output from the Acoustic Ecology module, on the Creative Music Technology degree programme. One project is to record using a variety of equipment and techniques.

Listen to the results of Gabriella Scanio’s recent portfolio of field recordings, consisting of hyrdophonic and electromagnetic sounds, and various places around Scarborough:

“30 second clips all combined into 1 track of places/items situated around Scarborough, England.

Sound 1: Kitchen events
Sound 2: Train Station
Sound 3: Shopping Centre Lift
Sound 4: Arcades
Sound 5: Cash Machine
Sound 6: Printer
Sound 7: Electromagnetic recording of a laptop
Sound 8: Electromagnetic recording of a cash till
Sound 9: Electromagnetic recording of a car stereo player’s speakers
Sound 10: Inside a car from underneath the driver’s seat
Sound 11: Inside a car from the driver’s seating position
Sound 12: Beach Waves
Sound 13: Inside a Bath”

Gabriella Scanio

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The Piano Makers @ St. Peter’s Church, Nottingham as part of World Event Young Artists 2012

The Piano Makers was selected for the World Event Young Artists 2012 event that is taking place in Nottingham, England, during 7th – 16th September 2012.

Hosted in the impressive St. Peter’s Church, in Nottingham, the piece is presented in the form of an installation, with a number of wireless headphones available to listen. The work is on loop from 11am – 4pm, 7th – 14th September.

The Piano Makers uses source material that is binaurally recorded – small microphones are worn inside the ears, resulting in recordings that, when played back over headphones, sound externalised and enveloping. The installation is completely free, and I recommend you visit the numerous other events that WEYA have organised during the week.

Programme note:

From The Piano Makers, written by D. Wainwright:

The frame and strings
of a fully strung grand piano
must withstand the pressure
of about 20 tonnes

The Kemble piano factory in Milton Keynes was the last to exist in the UK until its recent relocation to Indonesia and Japan. Using binaural recordings made during a visit to the factory before its closure, The Piano Makers is a study of piano material and manufacture, and the idea of the tension and pressure that the instrument withstands.

With thanks to Peter Corney and all of the Kemble Pianos Ltd. employees at Milton Keynes for obliging my intrusion.

This global event will showcase a selection of the best international creative talent, across a spectrum of artforms, in one city, providing an opportunity for 1000 artists from 100 nations to join together and share their creativity on an international platform.

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Water Soundscape Composition Contest – European Acoustic Heritage

European Acoustic Heritage

The European Acoustic Heritage project is currently taking submissions for a soundscape composition competition revolving around the theme of Water.

Open until August 13th 2012, the call is for compositions that involve some aspect of water (be it the obvious or the associated) with an emphasis on culture and context – we have plenty of inspiration here in Scarborough. The compositions must be 10 minutes or less in duration (always a problem for me!).

More detailed information on the contest and the EAH project in general can be found HERE

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