new thing...

i have a new cd release on the line label, called proximities. here are some notes:

Proximities was recorded in 2010 during my time as the artist-in-residence at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas. I began by recording a performance of a series of tones played on an old battery powered Paia Oz synthesizer with a built in speaker, determined by the letters A-G as found in a text by minimalist sculptor Donald Judd. I recorded the tone sequence several times during sunrise, amidst 50 of Judd’s stainless steel sculpture in an old army barracks that has been converted into a museum. The performances were recorded with an H4 digital recorder, my iPhone and also a cheap Sony micro-cassette recorder. The space was one of the most resonant i have ever been inside of.

During each successive performance/recording these small recorders were emitting the sounds of previous performances through their tiny speakers. At times I also hummed. Obviously the process owes much to Alvin Lucier's seminal work "I Am Sitting In A Room." Essentially, the piece is an accumulation of field recordings, and not only is the space itself audible, but also passing cars, etc. All of the processing in the recordings was "acoustically" generated by simply playing the sound in an extremely resonant and uniquely sounding space. The occasional popping sound, many of which can be heard at the end of the piece, are the sounds of Judd’s sculpture expanding while the sunrise begins to change the temperature within the space.

the cover image is from a failed film project/experiment, also created at chinati, using the same vowel structure as i used to generate the music to determine arrangements of colored gels.

the cd is available directly from the label, or from the usual outlets. you can also hear excerpts on the line site and see images taken during the recording process.