Scholtz Vitrine: Rumour Control
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Further updates will now take place @ www.schvtrn.com.
Martin [Sunday, January 05, 2003]
Season's greetings! The good news is that we finally have an official .com all of our own: www.schvtrn.com. Inside you will find the beginnings of a much expanded artist / mp3 page, with a whole lot more to come in the new year.
Martin [Monday, December 23, 2002]
RK: Have you noticed the barmaid's hair?
EB: Sure I was looking at... yeah... I want to ask her but it might be an opertation-kinda thing you know?
RK: Mmm...
Erin Bauer meets Rollo Kim
Martin [Friday, December 20, 2002]
The Schvtrn research facility, in association with Timeline Technologies, the manufacturers of the revolutionary home soundtrack device Pashtrurnn , are currently field testing what they are calling their 'Blue Screen Audio' device. Looking like a standard personal mp3 player, Blue Screen is "a discrete soundtracking device, essentially enabling the listener to create their own soundtrack to any given situation, whilst still leaving them able to hear ambient sounds, conversations etc."
Blue Screen offers an interesting tangent on 'ambient musics', allowing the wearer of the device to add a soundtrack to any situation, whether conversing in a trendy bar, on the beach, eating out, or hiding out...
Whilst still at the developmental stage, TT hope to be Beta testing Blue Screen on the streets in Spring 2003.
Martin [Friday, December 20, 2002]
Tonight UK residents can see part two of the tragic story behind Jamiroquai vocalist J.K.'s tragic 'loss of funk.' [12.50am, Channel 4, "Carling Homecoming"]. The program's exclusive 'behind-the-scenes' footage charts the charismatic, egotistical, upper-class frontman's steady 'loss of mojo' over a period of time spanning the band's entire career.
The show also features footage of the band's benefit concert in honour of the aforementioned loss. All proceeds from the performance were donated to the Clearmount foundation, a Canadian research facility currently investigating the mojo-loss phenomenon.
Rollo [Wednesday, December 18, 2002]
What makes a song like "Jingle Bells" stick in your head, and why does a wrongly played note sound so jarring? Scientists explain why. New research suggests the brain has and develops structures designed to perceive musical patterns and then remember them. ABC News.
Martin [Wednesday, December 18, 2002]
"I don't like to talk about that... but I will." iF Random
Martin [Wednesday, December 18, 2002]
The sound of a robin chirping in winter is a good sign, say scientists. It means the bird has built up enough fat reserves to survive the cold nights and has enough energy left to defend its territory. The bird traditionally sings in spring to attract a mate but in winter, when food is short, it faces a dilemma. Should it spend its time hunting for food to get through the next cold snap or burst into song? BBC
Martin [Thursday, December 12, 2002]
If you clap your hands in front of the 1,100-year-old Temple of Kukulcan, in the ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza, the pyramid chirps a reply in the voice of the sacred quetzal bird. "Now I have heard echoes in my life, but this is really strange," says acoustical engineer David Lubman, who thinks the Mayans built their pyramids to create specific sound effects. A handclap at the base of Kukulcan’s staircase generates what Lubman describes as a "chir-roop" sound that first ascends and then falls, like the cry of the native quetzal bird. Unknown Country
Martin [Wednesday, December 11, 2002]
At Schvtrn we don't know if your life really does flash before your eyes at the moment of death, but a team of researchers and social engineers aim to find out. Sentinel is a system that aims to record a lifetime's conscious audio and visual experiences on a series of custom-built ultra fast, slim line hard disks (Hyper HD's) incorporating infra red integration into a home archival system. The system records audio and visual information using discrete stereo microphones and a compact, high-resolution pinpoint camera. The idea is that a subject's entire lifetime can be documented and stored in a digital format. The material can even be edited and 'remixed'.
A number of infant tests subjects were fitted with prototype Sentinel systems at the turn of the century, and at the second anniversary of their fitting will have amassed millions of megabytes of compressed data. However, the team behind Sentinel is already facing objections to their work. The Catholic Church are one of many governing bodies who feel that Sentinel is inherently dangerous, stating that no one should have access to such personal, subjective experiences.
Sentinel stems from cutting edge scientific theory that suggests that the electromagnetic energy present in all living cells may somehow store the conscious experience of the organism. The team responsible, Timeline Technologies, in collaboration with the EKU research group, believe that they have found a way of simulating this 'archival technology' using digital equipment. "Imagine mourning a loved one..." suggests Eric Eigener, MD of EKU group, " imagine being able to remember them in a lifetime's worth of video and sound."
"In the next 50 years we believe that we'll start to see companies offering cloned Sentinel systems to people of all ages. It's never too late to start working with a system, and of course, you don't need to wear it 24 hours a day. There will also be a demand for editing facilities that will enable subjects to share edited highlights of their lives with family and friends. We are already speaking with people like Kodak and Jessops about the idea of setting up a Sentinel franchise... editing booths, download centres, projection screens, Sentinel Cinemas. There's a great deal of potential to this area, and we hope that people's prejudices will not hinder developments - this really is something that all of us should be able to have at least some experience of."
Martin [Tuesday, December 10, 2002]
Ace Frame and Bonehouse, former roadies and procurers of solvents and 'substances' for the Glitch and Milk crew (they make Glitch and Milk, ok Glitch at least, look quite adult and responsible) have been in touch with us again (Steve emailed me yesterday to say they had been parked outside his house for about four hours on Friday before finally leaving him a not pinned to his car) regarding a possible documentary proposal.
Having been inspired by the recent spate of reality TV programs, spoof docu-soaps etc., they want the label to fund a real-life TV pilot of actual crimes such as fraud, theft, drugs offences and random acts of violence, but marketed as a very realistic-looking spoof, a kind of 'sniff movie'.
Nina Solice, Head of Schvtrn Media: "Don't touch it with a bargepole I say."
Frame suggested that the team may be leaving the 'music business' for good, and moving into what he termed "people trafficking", except that they intend to take people "in the opposite direction", because "Bristol and speshlee Bedminster is s***." Whereas their recent time in Sangatte was described as "ill". However, Nina and her staff can't quite see the financial incentive.
One bright point however: Milk's parole officer is life partner to an old friend of John (of Amblient/Ambulance John fame) and is something of an 'Outsider Art' Impresario if there is such a thing,and currently negotiating rights to a number of very loose Performance/Visual Art UnInstallations from a borderline sociopath/ schizoid personality disorder patient called Eric. The works were recorded and collected by a group of Community Psychiatric Nurses in the South West and are rumoured to be "quite special."
Eric, who has been in care for most of his adult life, was allowed to leave Hospital grounds in the company of a care assistant who began taking photographs of Eric's increasingly ellaborate dens.
Martin [Monday, December 09, 2002]
Scholtz Vitrine's Harry 7 is the result of 12 months research and developments by a group of acoustic researchers with twenty years of experience in the field. Employing the very latest advances in psycoustic and ultra-sound generating equipment, new-wave guitars and syn drums, Harry 7 bring a new sense of depth and dynamic to the term 'popular beat combo.'
Their records are exactly that: documentation of experiments. Live performances are essentially 'field operations'. Both documentation and field operations employ technologies specifically designed and engineered by Harry 7 in order to facilitate the utilization of infra-sound and psycoustic sound frequencies. This is not to say that Harry 7 can't 'kick out the jams', carry a tune or cook up a compelling groove. Each experiment employs ample amounts of hook, groove, bass end and lyrical content to satisfy the most selective of music / music research fans.
Martin [Wednesday, December 04, 2002]
"POP SINGER Dannii Minogue has revealed herself as a racist bigot in an interview at a plush London restaurant for GQ magazine. Dannii spoke warmly of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the French fascist leader, claiming his virulent attacks on Asians and asylum seekers "struck a chord with people". She launched a tirade against Asians living in Australia, complaining that "even some of the street signs are in Asian [sic]". Dannii also lashed out at asylum seekers, Gypsies and people who live on council estates."
Martin [Monday, December 02, 2002]
Powerbook 160 [ancient Mac laptop]
those mini-toothbrush and toothpaste combinations you get in vending machines in motorway service station toilets
Winterson: Written on the Body
The World is Sound by Joachim-Ernst Berendt
Venton Lyme
Acoustic mirrors
infra-sound shades
abandoned-places
Martin [Friday, November 29, 2002]
Hector Issoning (Lead Curator and Masseuse at the 'Big Width' Sound Sauna and Acoustic Baths, Venice Beach, CA):
The new 'Vibro-pods' at the Big Width, custom-built harmonic isolation chambers
The new Craig Farahi DVD-A
Split log drums from Vanuatu
My Sonic DVD Audio Creator
Absynth
That amazing crackling Wonka candy bar
oddmusic.com
Melodyne Cre8
MeMiu, My own recipe ultrasonic-coupling gel, it keeps your skin smoooth!!
Loofers
Martin [Thursday, November 28, 2002]
Erin's 10 things:
o lucky man with Malcolm McDowell
Grant Morrison's 'the invisibles'
tarot cards
Susie Ibara
horse-riding chaps and shoes
the alexander technique
sub bangra
joy division's 'unknown pleasures'
Lonnie Liston Smith's 'Expansions'
müm
Martin [Wednesday, November 27, 2002]
Schvtrn Staff currently compiling their 'Top 10 sounds of the year':
Mart:
People Like Us
Pauline Oliveros: 'Suiren'
The Frayletee Infra-Sound Theatre
Rekotron Conspiracy
Cats fighting outside my window
Burning car
Antique Typewriter
Bowed answaphone
Acoustic photography
Tony Bennett 'Fly me to the moon'
Martin [Tuesday, November 26, 2002]
"Hemi-Sync is a trademarked, state-of-the-art audio technology based on the natural functioning of the brain that encourages coherent brainwave activity. Our brains produce waves or patterns of electrical activity. Different patterns indicate different mental states, such as rest (occipital Alpha), deep sleep (central Delta), meditation (central and frontal Theta), physical activity (wide-spread Beta). Hemi-Sync's audio binaural beats influence these brainwave patterns and in concert with other components of the Hemi-Sync process provide experiences in focused states of consciousness."
Martin [Tuesday, November 26, 2002]
Rollo Kim interviews Dr Guillermo Testi, an "Italo-Argentinian medical physicist currently investigating 'non-vocal body noise'":
Guillermo Testi, perhaps more than any other contemporary artist, embodies the Scholtz Vitrine ethos: employing a complex melange of philosophical and spiritual concerns, a sense of irony, and an anarchic, adventurous approach to technology and the self. Testi, like the majority of Schvtrn contributors, employs elements of cutting edge scientific theory, state-of-the-art technologies, ancient eastern teachings, global musics, and ultimately, his quest is in “the pursuit of joy through music”.
Academic research, field studies, digital processing, improvisation, studio production, meditation, laughter, dance, ancient berserking techniques, all are embraced along the path to understand and pleasure. In the words of Paul Frayletee, “it’s what we call Scientertainment.”
While many of our web readers will know Guillermo for his pioneering experiments in the field of 'non-vocal body noise', I felt that it was necessary to shed a little more light on what Guillermo has termed 'psychoustic' or 'psycoustic' sound.
Guillermo agreed to meet me in an expansive coffee and sound gallery overlooking Liverpool’s Albert Docks . Svelte and vulpine, and sporting red-tinted spectacles, his long-nailed fingers balancing a minuscule espresso in one hand, a transparent cane in the other, Guillermo appears content, and sporting an immaculate Vox Phantom suit, more than a little foppish.
Could you give us your insight into the area of experimental acoustics?
Well my own experience is unique: although I am an academic, my original training was in physics, and later medicine, (though I practised for a short period only). My knowledge of current experimental acoustics is therefore relatively basic, but of course I understand a lot of the work of acousticians Fletcher and Munson, the Fletcher-Munson curves, how to make and interpret Lissajous figures, the recording and analysis of decaying periodic signals, I love this stuff!!
To offer an example, my favourite recent work by JESUS (S.M), is his Experimental testing of the Blind Ocean Acoustic Tomography concept", beautifully presented at the Acoustic Variability Conference, in Lerici, Italy, in September… I find I am increasingly drawn to the Ocean…
But, apart from my own work on biological noise, I am well known as a Philosopher of sound rather than simply an experimentalist, my most popular work may be borne of science with an aesthetic, but like any true Renaissance man (pauses to chuckle to himself)…. forgive me… my true quest is of the nature and universality of sound, and the role of humans in its transductance.
Are you enjoying your stay? What's the hotel like?
Most pleasant I thank you, but this piped elevator muzak, when the architect understands that Kenny G is but a small and mostly insignificant part of the vibrational spectrum from ultrasonics to earth quakes and solar oscillations, then we may have our mood music, yes?
How would you define 'psycoustic space'?
Define it? This is difficult my friend, one might endeavour to truly experience it, or make it only, which I do in my work. But to define it is to have the blueprints to God’s broom cupboard, the very interface of spiritual and earthly existence, for indeed it is said all created matter and phenomena is a manifestation of the universal vibration. When you enter that space you are listening directly to the harmonics of that vibration.
How do you feel about the fact that your research has been picked up by Field Operatives such as Paul Frayletee, and relatively conventional acts Rekotron Conspiracy and MeMePleX PriMe, who are coming from the area of 'popular music'?
I am most flattered at the complements of these young gauchos, you know, I may be a dusty academic but the ‘sex, drugs, rock-roll’ is not so unfamiliar to me ha ha ha ha!! And of course, Paul I have known many years.
Can you tell us about what happened to you in Greece? There was some kind of incident involving a pair of protective infra-sound spectacles?
I cannot refer directly to this matter, as it is sub judice, but the equipment I use is a little esoteric, I admit, and the authorities simply misinterpreted my interest in acoustic properties of the Corinth canal as subversive.
Doing anything nice over ChristMas?
Like any good Catholic, I will spend it with my parents, however they both died over 15 years ago, so I will take the opportunity to record some interesting electromagnetic disturbances in the family mausoleum in Buenos Aires
You recently met with Mr Scholtz in Amsterdam. I understand that despite the fact that you've known one another for more than twenty years you have something of a 'difficult' relationship? Your parting was somewhat 'painful?'
That man! Such heuvos!! A true individual, but at times a perplexing one, but yes it is true I was forcibly ejected from the gallery following a brief and I thought, witty tirade.
Who cuts your hair?
Gabriel, my godson, who has ADHD, when I am at home, otherwise I favour any convenient military or naval barber.
Does your life-partner still produce infra-red paintings?
Not since the fire caused by the equipment at the last exhibition, no now Brea has embraced fluid matrix holography, a beautiful dynamic 3-D art form.
I was told that you were also involved in a sound-piece which temporarily turned the white of your right eye black - is this true?
My ophthalmologist reassured me it was a particularly livid subconjunctival haemorrhage caused I believe by a rogue sub-harmonic oscillation.
Would this be an effect that you've been able to recreate?
Not on a regular basis
Thank you very much for your time
A pleasure…
Useful links
Fletcher – Munson: http://www.webervst.com/fm.htm
Lissajous figures: http://members.aol.com/edhobbs/applets/lissajous/
Martin [Wednesday, November 20, 2002]
Memeplex's "Rekotron Conspiracy sessions" are now on their way to TAR, where they will await approval from the lab technicians [steps are always taken with an act like Meme, to insure that their use of psycoustic sound can be correctly captured and encoded within the limitations of digital recording technology]. 8 new tracks in total, with a further 9 tracks awaiting mixdown. Results will be available as MP3's soon.
"One day's worth of recording time," enthuses Mike, long-suffering Schvtrn engineer, "two weeks of mixing. These infrarock kids know how to jam, but they don't consider the consequences of their actions."
Meaning?
"In the control room, the goggles we have to wear to stop our eyes from vibrating make my ears sore."
Martin [Tuesday, November 19, 2002]
The Epitonic site has a surprisingly varied selection of avant-experimental mp3's. Highlights include the superb Negativland remix of the People Like Us track 'What's Music?', and the absolutely gorgeous soundfeast that is 'Suiren', an amazing dronespace created by Pauline Oliveros, Stuart Dempster, and Panaiotis inside a "two million gallon, 186-foot diameter water cistern."
"Liz fights her way through each song, locating the tempo by thumping herself on the hip, thigh or chest. Other times, she counts out the beats on her fingers, performing a weird movement as if attempting to strip the flesh from her digits.
"These actions are quite spontaneous, quite unpretentious and brought about through her extreme nervousness... yet they are just the kind of unique and attractive mannerisms which a less instinctive, more fame seeking performer would love to discover, cultivate and exploit." Mick Sinclair
Martin [Friday, November 15, 2002]
Herr Scholz' latest trip to Amsterdam was a success: "We all had a great time despite the terrible weather on Sunday. Uncovered some interesting sound artefacts. I walked past what appeared to be a fascinating shop window in a little street between the Herrengracht and Prinsengracht, crammed with bizarre ethnic stringed instruments, ouds, rabab, rebetika, lotar, saz, balalaika, zithers, mando-guitars, knocked to get in, the old guy, says 'no it's not a shop it's my home' - you know the Dutch, no blinds or curtains, so we spent an hour or two going through this amazing collection, he sits in this window playing apparently silently to the passing throng, certainly looks good"
And how did the business side of the trip work out?
"I also did some deals and hope to get our stuff into some venues for the New Year."
steve [Wednesday, November 13, 2002]
As celebration of the winter solstice , simaltaneous performances by Schvtrn artists will take place in New York, Italy, Estonia, Plavitsia, and in the UK: Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol, London and Brighton.
Hopefully each performance will be documented and assembled into one hour-long melange.
To take part, email us your details before December 12th. Documentation of events will be accepted on all analog and digital formats, including audio cassette, minidisk, CD-R and video.
This year the winter solstice will occur at 5:14 pm PST (1:14 GMT) on December 22, 2002.
Martin [Wednesday, November 13, 2002]
A large leak of helium gas used for the prototype KloudKrusha dirigible PA has caused chaos in our NW Workshop. "Obviously some smartarse thought it'd be funny everyone talking like munchkins, but it could have been deadly" comments Keith. Our management team are taking appropriate disciplinary measures.
Listening Room at Liverpool's Bluecoat Neptune Room on Friday features Performance Poetry plus Accidents and Treatments by Phil Moreton and feat. Adam Webster. Upcoming Maggie Nichols+Frakture Big Band gig Friday 13th December, also the Bluecoat, theme Lucky 13.
A rare appearance by ex-The La's famously reclusive frontman Lee Mavers in Hospital Canteen, eating, not performing (unless the consumption of food was in some way performance art).
steve [Wednesday, November 13, 2002]
In response to the rumours that we are somehow intent on using sound as a weapon (see below), I'd like to make concerned visitors to this site aware of the following: LOW FREQUENCY NOISE SUFFERERS HELPLINE.
A frankly hilarious article by Mr Lyme and his colleagues seems to be suggesting that we are a part of some shady Cultist sound conspiracy.
Robert Spridgeon: a selected bibliography.
Skrybeat: an mp3.
Martin [Tuesday, November 12, 2002]
Web-based delights / distractions:
Preview: the skrybeat line.
Mp3 xtracts from TAR's forthcoming Stray Dog City live CD.
Niels Jansson is back: Kay-Kay International Airport.
Martin [Monday, November 11, 2002]
Guy Fawke's night (5/11/02): Liverpool airspace was the host for the International Premiere of Schvtrn's latest performance technology 'KLoudKrusha'. Schvtrn's technical team chose the loudest night of the year as a cloak for their first major field trials of a barometric sound performance/atmospheric manipulation system developed out of the original DeepDub rig.
Keith McNally outlined some of the features: 'It's based around well recognised principles of acoustics used in conventional PA systems and the properties of certain atmospheric micro-electric phenomena, applied in a radically different way.'
The overall effect can be quite disturbing, not to say antisocial, but went unnoticed amongst all the pyrotechnics last night. Schvtrn artists Rekotron Conspiracy have expressed an interest in using KloudKrusha for their next (as yet unscheduled) performance. RC's chief 'electricist', Male, was present last night ' Yeah this is amazing, the kind of thing we have been trying to get our hands on for years, but it's a lot more robust and powerful than the stuff we have been able to make for ourselves, if we can get Keith and Mike down to Brighton with the KK we were planning an event somewhere on the South Coast in December, we will give details thru the usual channels'.
steve [Wednesday, November 06, 2002]
Schvtrn Sound Amnesty: We would like to do our bit with regards to recycling: with the kind of turnover we are witnessing within the music industry at the moment, sounds are becoming redundant in a matter of days.
So in order to readress the balance a little, we are planning a 'sound amnesty', whereby we will accept audio on any format, no questions asked. So whether you have a series of field recordings of the night activities of lettuce on 14 X 2" tapes that you know you'll never listen to again (not after last time), but realize their scientific value, or you just want to get rid of your Gran's old Gareth Gates CD's (remember CD's? Those were the days!), we will gladly accept anything (within reason, we're not Boyd Rice).
All sounds will be carefully cleaned, catalogued and archived; elements of them may even see a new life as part of a Schvtrn track. Email us.
[Please note that this is the only email address that we are able to receive email @. The river7 address is simply too slow.]
Martin [Monday, November 04, 2002]
Brainwashed are seeking donations for experimental musicologist Andrew Mckenzie of Hafler Trio fame, who is seriously ill, and has recently been ejected from his place of work for being so. Further details can be found at the h3o site, and merchandise can be purchased at the haflertrio cafeshop site.
Martin [Wednesday, October 30, 2002]
Why have things been so quiet? I understand that the Schvtrn computer system was recently infected with a virus (Glimmer?) - a virus that I understand was specifically designed to target your organization's sound files?
We have some idea who the culprit might be and have replied with some audio-gas files that utilize FLYNT technology; they localize a kind of elegant havoc.
Any comment on the backlash, the leafleting campaign instigated by the likes of Venton Lyme and SPOARM?
It is not worthy of comment, having said that it is a reaction, the traditional reaction which I guess would do most damage is to ignore us, putting on an adolescent psychologist's beardy-view of the world, and it is flattering.
I understand that you've become a lot more involved with field operations? Can you tell us a little bit more about this?
Yeah, next up is a gig with Ben Patterson, the man from Fluxus (Cardew, Cage, Ono, you know, post-Dadaists, from the 60's). He has a charming Museum of the Sub-Conscious, based in Namibia, one can donate one's subconscious to the museum. I have been perfecting the ultra-oud, in the context of a trio of frame drum, cello and random involuntary movements, a kind of Tourettean soundtrack for post-last year teens, mo-wave.
Any sounds you've found particularly 'emotionally resonant' recently?
A recently acquired collection of house clearance instruments, school violin, valve radio and Italian 12 string have a communal envelope of quite astonishing psycoustic depth, they positively reek of ER, and I have taken steps to stop them 'bleeding out' a phenomenon we have seen at SVR before, when objectification and fetishisation of such 'charged' sound sources causes ER leakage and amelioration.
Martin [Wednesday, October 30, 2002]
The web site hasn't been updated in a while? Why have things been so quiet?
They haven't, not at all. Steve went through a bit of a creative block recently - he disappeared (again!) - he phoned me a couple of weeks ago, I was in a pub toilet at the time, and he was in Paraguay. I always answer my phone, because while I like being called, I hate having to call people. I have this kind of negative psychic thing whereby I always catch people in the bath, or in the middle of a romantic encounter, disposing of the corpse as it were... But he's shipping over an iPod's worth of audio files and jpg's a month at the moment.
We've simply had trouble updating the site due to the Glimmer virus [a fix-file will be available from this site soon]. We've lots of news, particularly on the infra-sound / psycoustic sound front. We've discovered that a lot of non-Schvtrn related artists have been putting some of our research into practice 'in the field'. This is a very exciting and strange time for us at the moment.
I've been working on a number of pieces based around snatches of voices that I've been putting through the Frayletee Psycoustic filter system - it adds a certain amount of resonance on an emotional level ('emotional resonance' frequencies) - and the level's intensity can be controlled by a particularly well-designed visual interface.
Steve's been giving performances of his stealth-oud and radar-guitars around England and parts of Iceland, utilizing the acoustic mirrors of the English South Coast, and Iceland's unique geographical / acoustic characteristics.
I've also been feeling quite vulnerable, on an emotional level. I developed a sexual attachment to a .wav file that Paul sent over on a floppy disk a couple of weeks ago, this incredibly lush filtered panic-voice (somewhere between a sexual response and the sound some people make when they know they're going to be late for work). I slept with the disk under my pillow, with a 60 minute tape of the sound on repeated playback on my Walkman.
Avant-accordian player and musicologist Jo Northern is currently editing the soundtrack to the Crackerdog Productions movie, and this is quite fundamentally concerned with our whole 'joy of sound' ethos. I was actually present at the recording of an ambient melodica piece, and, coupled with a seriously intense piece of dialogue from post-pop 'singer songsculptor' Alan Neilson, the piece almost had me in tears. Very moving. In post-emotive Zeros culture, where any kind of emotional response must be an ironic one, I'd say that was something of a landmark. I'd call that 'quiet'...
Steve has also been conducting field research with the likes of Paul Butterworth of the Sumbday Audio Mindfield Auction, and Liverpool's Frakture collective... gathering sounds from the coasts of Alaska, southern England, and the West Indies. He also managed to visit Erin who's in hospital at the moment undergoing some groundbreaking temporal-lobe treatment.
(A thought occurred to me on the train over, 'a piece of music is never finished unless it's being listened to... so its completion is intermittent, like consciousness... like time, hunger, a thirst quenched...)
Tiffany Appendage (alias Recotron Conspiracy) are a kind of abstract new-wave act I've been working with recently, and they have a very direct approach to field-induction, the implementation of infra-sound, psycoustic sound, going so far as to devise their own equipment for the optimization of sound within the live field.
On the other hand, we're also beginning to see what I predict may become something of a backlash for the collective as a whole. Organizations like SPOARM (Society for the Prevention of Objectionable Audio Research and Music) and The Noise Pollution Clearinghouse seem intent on pointing the finger at us as the 'figure heads' of some kind of global audio-Zionist conspiracy theory that I find quite offensive. If, as people like Venton Lyme are suggesting, psycoustics is the audio equivalent of satanic worship, then people like SPOARM are the equivalent of Christian Fundamentalism. And we all know how damaging and organizations such as those can be.
SPOARM?
Yeah, they've got this whole leafleting campaign going on. They call the noise pollution people in anytime any of the Frakture, TAR or Schvtrn people play out, they have people sign petitions. We've even caught them planting people in the audience with blood capsules, faking seizures and nose bleeds - it's really quite embarrassing. They obviously have nothing better to do.
According to the smear campaign, SPOARM seem to be suggesting that they have physical evidence that you are employing untested technology designed to produce frequencies 'harmful to life'
Well if he does then I'd like to see it!
Martin [Wednesday, October 30, 2002]
Hectic Hybrids for the Noizy Noughtiez: "SchVtrRn Research Labs present an innovative musical cross-fertilisation process, the awesome real-time intelligent audio processing system PASHTrURnn®, which is set to bring about a revolution in the domestic sound environment."
Pashtrurnn Technology ®.
Martin [Tuesday, October 29, 2002]
Welcome to the new and improved News... We are temporarily employing the Blogger system as a way of getting around the difficulties we've been having with ISP's.
Essentially, the "Society for the Prevention of Objectionable Audio Research and Music", a group of 'anti-noise' activists, have begun a smear campaign against us and our peers. These people are basically claiming that we employ infra-sound frequencies and are intent on destroying western civilization with sound waves. So we will not be making any more sound files or data available until we sort this out.
Previous News items can be found here.
Martin [Monday, October 28, 2002]
Scholtz Vitrine: Rumour Control
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