waking-up in 80-days
software, soundscapes, sonography
(one silence is worth a thousand sounds)
I've spent many years in the area between art & technology.
The structures and variations there in are of paramount interest to me.
Distribution of time in space, of both image and sound.
I search for solutions which are proof against irritation & boredom.
The quest for refinement of simplicity.
In addition to my own work I accept commissions based on sound, but also on imagery.
Both my own music as well as recordings of others.
In addition to digital music recordings, I record the daily sounds around us.
Also, to keep things interesting, I am attracted to the idea of installing microprocessors
in all sorts of places which can control all sorts of things at a (very) direct level.
That, too, is possible within the realm of technology & art.
A further application is the control of machines producing sound, light, and even silence.
Supported projects can be found at the euroGenie site.
In the UNESCO year of the mountains 2002, a non mainstream CD production has been completed. For a real mountain experience, you have to stay in the mountains for more than just a few days. Being in the mountains for longer changes your perception of time. And that changes your perception of music. Which is how the idea of bringing a vibraphone into an open mountain landscape came about.
Simpleness & Refinement is a light artwork commisioned by the Stadsschouwburg and the City of Utrecht,
the Netherlands.
Small red balls of light move along the upper edge of the theatre tower.
Both left and right around the world.
Seven days a week, around the clock. Some fast, some slow.
At times only few, at others in great numbers.
Visible both night & day.
CAUTION when crossing the road!
The intention of the radio documentary I hear, so I listen is to open up the world of everyday sounds.
It is based on a walking trip through an apparently barren landscape in the Norwegian mountains.
It was inspired by a press conference held by Norwegian composer/ percussionist Kjell Samkopf
for the launching of his recent CD Mountain Listening.
An attempt has been made to integrate form and content into one whole:
space and time, the perspective, dynamics, distance.
The guiding principle is the sonographics of the soundscape.
In between, different aspects of briefly and concise listening will be explained.
Hints as a handle. Hints about what has been heard, and about what is to come.
By definition before and after this programme there is be a lot to be heard on the radio.
The first difference the listener will no doubt immediately notice, is the change of acoustical space
surrounding the narrator of this programme. Also her role will change.
Within the sonographics, more than the perspective will change.
There are three people in this programme essentially telling the same story;
Kjell Samkopf and I, each from our own perspective, and the RVU radio narrator Ilse Wessel, reading out my words.
On the one hand, there are two overlapping views on the same subject,
and on the other, two presentations of one and the same viewpoint.
Within the text blocks, fragments have been inserted, but not within the sound blocks.
The pace of the narrative parts is very much higher than the sound fragments tempo.
These sound fragments each last between four and nine minutes without interruption,
during which time no spoken word is heard. This, in present-day radio terms, is exceptionally long.
The ingredients are sparce. Little appears to happen.
And then, suddenly, it turns out what riches hide behind this seemingly simple façade.
Each fragment has its own tension span.
Kjell Samkopf tells his story in English, searching for his words by the fireside.
My own story is told in Dutch; it has been written down entirely,
proof-read and corrected by someone who knows about these things;
it is recited, mid to close range miking technique, by two people.
In the text fragments, recorded indoors, the microphones are fixed in one position.
In the sound fragments, recorded outside, the microphones are constantly moving.
The use of absolute silence between the different items is crucial,
to allow the listener to distinguish the fragments, and to catch up.
The recordings are unprocessed, i.e. no dynamic compression or spectral filtering has been effected.
The use of headphones is strongly recommended, for appreciating the full depth of the sound material.
Adjust your listening level at the beginning of the programme in such a way
that the voice of the female narrator sounds as in a normal conversation.
I hear, so I listen is about listening and hearing.
If we define silence as space within time, this programme is about balancing time in space.
This item is online.
The CD of the program including the transcription and translation into english is available
on request.
RST (het Ruisen van de Stilte in de Tijd)
The radio documentary the Ringing of Silence in Time is about the changing of sounds that surrounds us all the time. Sounds that we are not listening to by default. Changes so slow that we do not notice them. By making snapshots, we create the possibility of comparing the quality of the different points in time. But first one has to be aware of the fact that most things do have a sounding component as well. Whether we like it or not. Sound as a silent killer.
The documentary contains sounds from entries sent from all over the world to P.O.Box 9 in Amsterdam in the scope of the9th project.
This item is online.
The CD of the program including the transcription and translation into english is available on request.
Recording & Mastering
For decades I've been recording in digital only. First on betamax tape with a Sony PCM-F1.
Later came DAT, MD and Jukebox3.
Today while walking around I use a Sound Devices 722
harddisk recorder and two DPA 4060
omnidirectional small membrane microphones.
For direct to disk recording I use Metric Halo
Mobile I/O ULN8 in combination with a Sound Devices 722 and/or an Apple PowerBook
For many years I have been using a Jecklin Disk and two and the same microphones:
Bruel & Kjaer 4006.
In 2003 the best got better: I got an excellent pair of matched QTC1-mini prototypes from
Earthworks as a replacement for the 4006.
Omnis with the best specification imaginable for in- and outdoor work.
New mics on the block!
Recording
Exclusively on location, namely there where it sounds the best.
The Jecklin disk is my primary technique for capturing sounds.
Recently extended by the Vertical Microphone Method (VMM).
Editing and Mastering
Running Reaper (an excellent audio editing software program)
as well as Steinberg Wavelab 6b
on a (PC and MAC) laptop computers in combination with the Mobile I/O ULN-8,
editing and mastering (24/192) can be done virtually anywhere.
For backwards compatibility I still have a Sadie V3.7 system and Samplitude 7,
Sekd Sequoia 7.0 and Steinberg Nuendo 4.
Copies can be made onto disk, EXABYTE, CDR and DVD.
Listening
Simple yet effective, two Quad ESL-63 electrostats with a KEF subwoofer,
and/or Jecklin Float Electrostat headphones.
No airco (of course)
What counts, is to balance the project in time, space and tranquility.
Color / Space / Sound
Color / Space / Sound is an art-work which Peter Struycken and I constructed specially for the internet
on commission by the Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art in Amsterdam.
The work is a virtual color-space which is in continuous movement.
The internet visitor receives again and again from his own location a new and unique cross-section from this space on his own screen.
A 2D moving image
JAVA based view. (You need a java compliant browser.)
Name dropping
In addition to his own (personal) work he has been or is involved in projects by (amongst others):