A Sound Arts Blog

I’ve never been involved in post-production sound work before, so I went along to a classmate’s foley studio session to observe the process of recording foley in the LCC recording studio. We had some minor difficulties connecting the monitor to the external speakers, and I found myself slightly overwhelmed by the setup controls.

After spending some time working adjusting settings and getting the hand of the controls we were able to connect the internal and external monitor, speakers and microphones and were ready to start recording Foley.

My classmate was recording the sound of prancing footsteps and the clanging of a metal can on a surface imitating concrete floor. The experience in the foley studio gave me some more confidence in not only setting up for foley recording, but in the crucial little processes that are involved, such as microphone proximity and the development of timing and precision.

The famous train scene in Spirited Away, by Hayao Miyazaki, is one of most groundbreaking scenes in animation history. This film encapsulated the dream-like atmosphere of a fantastical adventure just perfectly, which is why it stands as one of my favourite films. This particular scene is one of the most memorable to me as it relies purely on the fusion of sound and visuals, with no dialogue whatsoever.

I wanted to recreate the sound for this scene because I’ve always enjoyed it sonically. I remember feeling an overwhelmingly tranquil sensation while seeing this scene in the theatre for the first time. There’s something about the sound of a travelling train moving through peaceful villages that puts my mind at ease, while conjuring an excitement within me.

I’m eager to experiment with the foley recordings for this scene and discover how I will interpret it.

Recently I visited a walk-through exhibition by Ryoji Ikeda.

Ryoji is a Japanese visual and sound artist. His work is primarily concerned with sound in a variety of “raw” states, such as sine tones and noise, often using frequencies at the edges of the range of human hearing.

I found the exhibition to be a gripping experience. With little no reference on the signification of each piece, my experience was left purely to my own feeling and intuition in response to the works. I found the collaboration between the intensified sounds and the striking light work very compelling. I found myself completely immersed in some of the works, particularly the ones with visually powerful imagery.

Below are some pictures I took during the epic showcase…

For my sound piece, I wanted it to be based around a poem written to an image or painting.

A painter friend of mine sent me a picture of a painting they did recently. I loved the simplicity of it as well as the blend of warm colours and tones. There are three birds shown flying through the clouds, but the faded tone of them makes them very easy to miss, as their colours fuse with the sky. I was drawn to this imagery. For the writing exercise, I stared at the painting while talking freely into my iphone microphone. After gathering the words, I wrote them down, made some slight adjustments, then based my sound piece on the words I had written and the psychography phrase ‘where the birds sing’.

Below is the poem:

Walk along the river, feeling glad to be there

What a dream

Eyes have seen the same sky many many times

But still I beam

Movies that I’ve seen, remeber the scenes

Middle of the night, dream with open eyes

Breathing without sound, lifted from the ground

Look what I have found

Memories walk away so blindly

Dream of a place, no demons hiding

Once is enough cause there’s no returning

Take us to a place where the birds sing

Recently, I’ve been captivated by this Tawainese band called ‘Prarie WWWW’.

Prairie WWWW are an experimental folk band formed in Taipei, Taiwan in 2010. Their music combines poetry, folk, ambient and tribal elements.

I’ve been listening to their catalog of music and found that many of their pieces draw me into a spacious and unfamiliar world. Their lyrics, while solely in Mandarin, are usually open to many interpretations because of their general theme. However, I still find them to be fascinating and the mental imagery they produce is quite beautiful.

lyrics translated:

After saying goodbye, you lead it away

Choosing a distant road

Overhanging trees whisper

The river quietly, slowly, flows

Along with the moon and stars, it wanders

A distant star

Deep sleep pure joy wandering

A distant star

You’re like the wind, you’re also like the river

Spread your arms, spread your arms

Above is my attempt at automatic writing, or ‘psychography’.

I’ve always been curious about this writing technique and found putting it into practice to be quite amusing. Most of what I had written turned out to be pretty unintelligible, although I had never done this before so I was quite surprised to have some comprehensible phrases.

I used the phrase ”where the birds sing'” in the middle of the page to title my sound piece, and I based my writing on this phrase.

After visiting practitioner Bishi’s insightful talk, I did some more research into traditional Indian music and sounds stemming from Indian culture out of pure interest and fascination. I came across this live musical performance by Patiala Gharana and other musicians. I found her ability to be so agile within the vocal melody almost mind-blowing. The traditional Indian raga scale that is used here is also very enticing to me and I find it to be extremely pleasurable to hear. The piece as a whole, through the use of different sounds communicating and infusing with each other took me on a sonic journey that I didn’t want to end.

I thoroughly enjoyed Bishi’s practitioner lesson and afterwards decided to listen to some of her work. I enjoyed learning about how she implements her culture into her art and practice. I had a listen to her most recently released work, a single titled “Don’t Shoot The Messenger” and these were my initial thoughts.

The first thing I noticed was the crystal-clear style of vocal pronunciation. From listening to her talk, it’s evident that lyricism and poetry is essential in her work. Stylistically, it’s not something I am fond of, but I feel that singing in such a clear way allows the listener to hear every word and understand the message fully. I truly adored the melody line of the sitar, as well as the traditional-sounding vocal melismas the most.

Sonically, I found the mix to be very clean and clear. I adored the haunting melody of the final chorus leading into the sitar solo into a fade-out ending. Overall, it’s not a piece of work that touches me and I personally ound the repetitiveness of it slightly tiresome, however I did notice some beautiful elements in the some of the melody aspects and enjoyed a lot of the traditional elements within the piece.

Bishi, a UK based musician, is an artist with an ongoing collection of striking audio and visual work.

I found it interesting to learn about how she transforms her sitar into a “rock sitar” by putting it through guitar pedals. Her innovation and dedication to create something bold and memorable inspired me.

“I am Indian in skin, but English of heart”

Through her piece Albion Voice, she captures the story of her originally being from Bengali decent, and aims to playfully slander the monarchy through witty images.

It was clear to me that her work in visual arts was just as important to her as her work in sound arts to convey her message. This made me think about my own sound work and sparked some internal dialogue about how I can implement more visual aspects of art into my work.