This morning i woke from troubled sleep to hear the irritating voice of my alarm at 4.20am. I wouldst not rise without agenda for such an hour and assure you it was for a noble cause. But why the restlessness? The reason is unclear. Alas, there has been little time for despair and angst, no quiet longing for those distant shores that inspired my fancy but three weeks ago. It has been weird being back in Melbourne. I miss India and the mountains, and i really loved wandering about the streets of Paris - flannuring is the appropriate term i believe. But it is very good to be back and there are lots of wonderful things happening - some of which i have written about here and shall continue to do so. Other things which are not in the spirit of the blog and so shall go unmentioned.
In the wake of my travels, new and exciting ideas have rushed to ease the transition from movement to station, and i am feeling INSPIRED. But not in ways i ever would have anticipated. My mind fizzes about the novelty of my H2 microphone and the possibilities it presents. Being back in rehearsal with musicians and doing the singing lessons and getting up early to do a field recording. It's all full of vivacity and life and the cool winter breath on my tongue and my cheek. And yet it could not have been without the travels i have had. It was then that i discovered the joy of making sounds in strange environments. A palace in Bhundi. A storm water drain in Kew. By the Yarra under a bridge beside the Melbourne Arts Centre. What ghosts would whisper between our random acts?
After our (very enjoyable) experiment in the drain last week, Alex and i were keen to have another crack. Originally we had planned to make noise on the platform of the Parliament train station. I arrived early and it seemed an opportune moment to sneak a preview of those subterranean sounds. Paid ticket in hand, i entered the station to discover drabness and disappointment. Metros and loop station designs tend to be as lifeless, austere and conformity inducing as possible. I recorded the escalator. Twice. But then decided that the commercial background music would prove... distasteful to our exercise. And so when Alex arrived i said let's try by the river under a bridge or something. And so we went there and discovered that there was much more life by the Yarra than there is in a storm water drain under Kew. Indeed, there is more life under a river than there is under Parliament. And so we nabbed a morning jogger and shoved him in a large chest and proceeded to record ourselves taunting him with sticks, tools and devices from the outside.
Okay... that is not strictly true. But if you listen closely, you may find that that is what it sort of kind of sounds like. Or maybe i am just a twisted egg. As a cheap alternative, we placed the microphone on a bin with the cavernous underpass on one side and the river on the other, allowing the recording to oscillate between claustrophobic and wide open spaces. For noise we utilised the walls and metal fences for scratching, a guitar, a snare drum, bits of paper, plastic, vocals and leather gloves. Accidental sounds included birds, joggers and the familiar rumble of trams above. The sample lasts nearly 25 minutes and is a much more agreeable listening experience than the sky gashed open sonic torture column of the other day. I have already listened to it a few times and must say i find it highly agreeable. I hope you will too.
That is sort of all for this time. No cutting asides about offensively bad theatre. We have some good ideas about prospective venues for future field jams. I will be sure to post them here when they eventuate.
Thanks for listening... and reading.
Benjamin
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