The visiting practioner series is always a great source of education, whether it is hearing a new type of music, learning the techniques, or the biography of the person speaking. I get a lot out of the series. In this blog I want to talk about Audery Chen, who is a sound artist, vocalist, and sound artist who makes a wide variety of sound-based work, typically built around voice.
Audery started of her lecture by giving us a 10-minute demonstration of her artistic practise. This performance was only comprised of a synthesiser drone and her voice, her voice had no processing at all apart from the mic amplifying her voice. Chen created a wide variety of noises and sounds just by using her voice. Here is a performance by Chen from 2007, in this performance it is just synthesiser, voice and cello. She is a trained celloist, but she said she has stopped using it in recent years. In this video you can see the wide dynamic range of her voice and what sounds she can create.
Chen inspired me and this project not necessary in the case of sound, but more in her method. In the talk Chen says she does most of her recordings in one long continuous take. After the recording she will then edit and think of titles and such. I really liked this approach to making music. As it feels a lot freer and more improvisational. This is also a great way to capture moments and ideas you wouldn’t have if you were not recording.
This gave me the inspiration to try and make my piece ‘Stella Dancing into the Starlight’ in as little takes as possible. In the creation of the piece, I would take random 10 or so second sections of the song ‘Stella by Starlight’. I made ‘Stella Dancing into the Starlight’ in two sessions. The first session was improvising with the samples by using different effects and transposing them to different pitches. And getting what would be ‘Stella Dancing into the Starlight’. The second session was a more focused look at the piece, editing certain parts, mixing and mastering. I really liked doing this approach to recording and creating. As it made the process feel less clinical and more open and freer.
Bibliography
www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Audrey Chen – concert from MÓZG. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvuZi9vpfxo