| I
have always been interested
in finding ways of introducing people to the sound I collect that escape the paradigm
of concert-and-CD.
One
direction I pursued was the Serendipity Machine. Each Machine produces an ever-changing stream
of sounds by autonomously and randomly mixing source clips from a prepared library.
Clips
can be anything from a few seconds to several minutes long; several clips of silence
are included. Each Machine is built into an object appropriate to its sound sources,
typically a suitcase; blindfolds are usually provided to focus the listener on
what she is hearing. My
first Machine, 03-19-02 (Skyway), was installed for
Systems Up! on March 19, 2002, an evening of installation
and visual art curated by San Francisco's Elliot
Lessing; that is the Machine documented here. My
album Dusk Machines documents a series of more recent
Machines, which mix quiet sine waves tuned to the slendro scale of the Indonesian
gamelan with more refined libraries of recordings. 
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marincello unsoundwalk
rodeo soundial
handpans and the hang
as
paredes têm ouvidos
flostam resonance
#1
a
day, a week, a year
field effects concert series
annapurna: memories in sound
quiet,
please
serendipity machines
kolam
urban
cycles
other recordings |
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These
Machines enchant me because they offer the listener an opportunity to hear something
unique: the chance conjunction of sounds that is evocative, provacative, lovely
or jarring. A conjunction that may never occur again, exactly the same way. In
other words, the Machines reproduce and amplify exactly those elements which are
most elusive, that interest me most, in the act of field recording itself. Perhaps
that's why they can surprise and delight me, though I make them and know every
sound in their library. Let
me know if you'd like to purchase or curate a machine.
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