The piece begins with some sounds found on an album from Trent Radio archives entitled "Sounds in Space". Danielle added a beat under the dated announcers voice, contemporising and lifting the intro to the work. Miriam suggested recording and dubbing in our own voices, with a slight reverb effect, giving credit to "cool edit pro" instead of the original producer, "RCA Victor". Our intention here was to relay our purpose in the piece: to familiarise ourselves with the software while creating a humorous, exploratory sound piece.
Next you hear fuzz. Who would have thought that creating a sound evocative of the fuzz between radio stations could be such a difficult thing to do right. So many considerations to make - should it be a dial or digital receiver panel? Static-like or with almost audible station sounds? Cyclical or ever-changing? After some diligent effort, primarily on the part of Danielle, and through collecting sounds three separate sources (fuzz from the radio in the archive room, out-takes from "McDerek's", a radio drama, and clips of messed-up sound-wave files), and looping them, we were satisfied.
Following the fuzz is a piece plundered (with permission) from the production of our classmate Chris Tonelli on guitar with Nancy Logger doing vocals. Miriam clipped a section she was fond of and then, on Danielle's initiative, we inverted the selection, adding a slight echo once the mirror image was created. Again, playing with the possibilities of the Cool Edit Pro.
Again, fuzz. Intended to be evocative of the sound between stations on a radio dial. Both of us hold radio close to our hearts, and this sound is a homage to our preferred medium, and a transition, a break between pieces, allowing us the option of distinctness or autonomy in and between segments of this piece.
The next part is a compilation of segments of work by our classmates - Craig Horsely on pipes, Nancy Logger saying 'it's a work in progress' and Clay Jones and Todd Jaques with a track they called Harmonix. To these elements we added sounds of peeing and laughing. The pee is from a CD by Adam Sandler, edited to remove his intermittent speech, and the laughing is a tweaked take of Danielle and I recorded while working on this piece at Trent Radio. These pieces were assembled in multi-track. Most were looped 2-4 times, the amplitude manipulated in an attempt to accentuate different elements throughout.
Then fuzz, looped and faded out, ending with a punctuating 'zip' from the Adam Sandler CD. The form of the end was compiled by Danielle, who took into account our previous discussions on the possibilities. The file name, "Bontemps", was also Danielle's doing.
Miriam would be interested if anyone who hears this piece has input or impressions to offer. Her email is miriamstucky@hotmail.com
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