As I look around me at the four walls that encapsulate me, I cant help but notice the slightest of sounds I have become accustomed to. Footsteps above me that once created the most annoying of sounds, that creaking noise, is now unconsciously shut out, ignored.
But it’s in my bed when I became aware once again.
Your bed is a thing of such comfort and safety, yet at the same time, frustration and inability. My bed remains a place of familiarity, unlike its surroundings. In this very moment my bed is my workspace with pens, pencils, my sketchbook and various charging leads scattered around it, however, in 4 or 5 hours it will become my slump, a place to watch tv and fall asleep. The versatility of a bed is what makes it so amazing, I can feel so unable and incompetent in my bed but also so uplifted, intimate, and at peace.
My bed once became our place, and then back to mine, and soon will be someone else’s.
Recorded in bed, very true to style.
The sounds of a bedroom are most obvious when first moving in, with the empty room and white walls that sound so easily bounces off of, an echo is present. As you move each of your items in, piece by piece, posters on walls, clothes hung up, bedding made, the sound starts to be absorbed. Your room becomes your sound.
Considered a modernist movement in music, emerging around the 1940s, Musique contrète is a type of composition using recordings as raw material, which are then manipulated and edited. It can consist of recordings of voices, instruments, your environment and/or electronic/mechanical sounds, instead of relying solely on instruments to create the music. Musique concrète is composed directly from the recorded sounds- which is where it gets the term ‘concrete’ from, as the sound exists in the physical world, (unlike musical notes). The genre emerged from the new music technology developed in the post war era.
Once recorded the sound can be manipulated in various ways to create the desired effect, these can included; cutting the tape by hand, speed changes, reversing the sound, looping, distortion and filtering. As a result the composition usually appears as a kind of sound collage, combining and layering many different sounds with many different effects- often in a non traditional form.
Pierre Schaeffer, a french composer, writer, broadcaster and engineer was one of the core developers of musique concrète, in 1948, he began experimenting with phonographs and tape recorders to manipulate sound. In 1951 he formed ‘Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète’ which was a center for research, experimentation, and production of musique concrète. It was a place where composers and engineers could collaborate on creating music using tape recorders, sound manipulation, and electronic equipment. One of Schaeffer’s earliest musique concrète compositions was “Étude aux chemins de fer” 1948, using recordings of train sounds. Pierre Henry was another early artist working with musique concrète, his most known piece “Symphonie pour un homme seul” (1949–1950) was a collaboration with Schaeffer, combining various sounds; vocal fragments, whistles, footsteps, doors slamming & metallic sounds to create the narrative.
“Symphonie pour un homme seul”
It’s the lack of structure, the embrace of experimentation and overall rejection of traditional music that makes musique concrete modernism. Wanting to use technology to create something entirely new, soundscapes became abstract and experimenting was welcomed, which pre-war would have been met with, most likely, a lot of skepticism. This is due to the culture of both music and the arts in general being both very classical and traditional, generally, people’s tastes were much more conservative and so the arts was expected to follow these societal norms. Aswell, early technology of the 1940s was just starting to become popular and musique concrete chose to embody this technology which completely changed the sonic practices of society. Although at first it was a small population of artists who’s practice it changed, the rates at which it grew and inspired other artists and movements of modernism was vast.
Although founded in the 1940s, musique concrète is still relevant and used today by many sound artists and musicians as it lay a groundwork for sound design and sampling. When looking into how it is involved in contemporary practices, I chose to look into jazz and soul artists who have used techniques of musique concrète. Musicians such as Herbie Hancock, Sun Ra, Madlib and Alice Coltrane all use techniques reminiscent of Musique concrète. Each use samples and sound manipulation in their own way, to create their own unique sound but which all stem from the process of Musique concrète.
Below is Herbie Hancocks album Sextant (1973) which features electronic sounds and synthesized effects that use techniques of musique concrète, including the manipulation of recorded sound textures.
The reason I chose to research Musique concrète and look into how these typically jazz and soul artists have used Musique concrète techniques in their work is because my current practice is more catered to creating music rather than sound art installations or other pieces of artwork. And so I wanted to look into a historic practice that is most relevant to what I want to create, especially within the genres of music I work in ( soul and jazz). From my research I not only feel more comfortable in my choice of course ( as I know I can relate what I learn into my practice) but am also more insightful into how the introduction of technology drastically changed the sound and music world, in my opinion, for the better.
The ambiguity of the term sound arts is what first attracted me to it and why I chose this course. It being such an open form of art, made me excited and inspired to produce work, and understand where I want to go with this work. It is only as of recently that I have found an enthusiasm for sound and music, and although I am new to the practice, I can feel it now has huge relevance to who I want to be as an artist. Previously to this I have worked much more as a visual artist, filmmaking is something I have great admiration and love for. So when it came to choosing the next step, I knew I wanted to explore sound, however, not leave film behind entirely. I felt sound arts was a choice that can still be relevant to film if I would like it to be, but, is also a separate thing in itself which I can explore.
At this moment in time, sound art has more of a musical meaning to me as my current work has been mostly guitar and vocal based. However, I am expecting my understanding and interpretation of the term ‘sound art’ to constantly change depending on the piece I am working on. This fluctuation of understanding is something I look forward to as it will keep things fresh due to my viewpoint changing throughout each period.
