Nye Parry

A short video of our Exploded Sound tests at LCC this week has gone up on YouTube. It gives quite a good idea of the experience of the piece (one of a number of versions we tried) in which three string chords are analysed and reduced to 32 sine waves, each of which is given a separate location through an individual loudspeaker. From outside the structure the chord is experienced as a whole. By wandering among the speakers individual fragments are heard surrounding the listener who experiences the sound from the inside. In this example three chords alternate through the gradual substitution of partials, so different combinations are heard at each moment. We also had fun with some choral sounds and analysed speech samples which had a very dramatic effect. I have uploaded a brief example of the speech onto soundcloud so you can play it by clicking on the play button below. The recording was made by walking among the speakers with the mic to reveal different perspectives (not available on iToys, sorry).

I spent the day setting up a 32 channel test version of the Exploded Sound project with Jamie Campbell who designed the hardware. The system worked well and I am developing content on it for a few days (If you want to hear it contact me, I’m having a bit of an open day on Wednesday!). The basic idea is to locate individual sine wave components of complex sounds in different positions in space. It forms part of my research at CRiSAP which focuses on the use of space to elucidate sonic structures. We tried a number of sounds and are very excited by the results!

I will be performing my little spoken word projects The Two of Us and My Name is Sarah Simpson (see Words category) at the last nonclassical night at TROY BAR, 10 HOXTON STREET N1 6NG on the 7th December, http://www.nonclassical.co.uk/?p=2067. The event features work by many of my colleagues at Trinity Laban Conservatoire including Dominic Murcott, Gwyn Pritchard, Stephen Montegue and Paul Newland.

As part of my research fellowship at CRiSAP I will be speaking at a symposium on sound art practice as research at London College of Communication, Elephant & Castle London SE1 6SB. The Symposium is on Saturday the 26th November from 11 till 1 and is linked to the exhibition Abbey Road and Other Stories which also runs till Saturday at the college. Artists from the exhibition will present their work at the symposium. See www.crisap.org for details.

I have just taken up my new post as research fellow at CRiSAP the (extremely active) Centre for Research in Sound Arts Practice at LCC, University of the Arts London. My research will focus on the idea that the spatial metaphors we use to conceptualise musical and sonic structures can be actualised and physically experienced through sound installation and locative media.

The wonderful exhibition Peter Vogel – The Sound of Shadows, which is the first UK retrospective of this extraordinary artist’s work runs at the University Gallery in Brighton until the 7th November. I have contributed an article to the DVD (published by Wergo) that accompanies the show and spoke at the symposium at the opening of the exhibition.

We are celebrating 20 years of Gamelan at City University (of which I have personally been involved in 19) with a concert of Sundanese Gamelan Degung and Balinese Gong Kebyar on October 25th at 7pm in the Performance Area, College Building, St John St Islington!

Nic Sandiland’s new interactive Video work Points of View, which features my sound design, is at the Barbican as part of the Merce Cunningham Companies final tour from the 3rd to the 9th October 2011.