Hitting the fan
Aug 18, 2022, 03:32 PM
Composition by Elise Plans.
"My obsolete sound is of a quirky little table fan, the Philips Ventilator HA2728, which has ambitions larger than its small size with its bright colours and smooth curvy design.
"The sounds from the piece have almost all come from manipulating the recording, using sampling and time-stretching. I built a patch in Pure Data with various algorithms to play with the sound, and then ‘played’ this as an instrument which I recorded and clipped-up to arrange in Logic Pro.
"At the start of the piece I have attempted to suggest that the listener is zooming-in to the sound in the same way that you can zoom in visually with a microscope, so that you become very small as the environment enlarges around you, perhaps how the fan would sound to a fly or a gnat.
"The only sound used in addition to the original sound file is a field recording of a suburban soundscape, with the sound of traffic, birds and a plane. This is to bring the listener back to the context of this human artefact, the desk fan, with obvious parallels between the rotating fan and the rotation of the blades in the jet engines.
"A lot of the sounds have been generated from the ‘click’ of the on/off switch, the percussive element of which has been exploited, and sculpted into the off-kilter rhythmic section that can slightly disturb the listener for not conforming to a regular beat.
"The original file is played in reverse at the end to contain the piece in a mirrored structure with the original sound at the start, closing the self-contained window into the world of sounds that I hear inside the fan."
This is part of the Obsolete Sounds project, the world’s biggest collection of disappearing sounds and sounds that have become extinct – remixed and reimagined to create a brand new form of listening. Explore the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/obsolete-sounds
"My obsolete sound is of a quirky little table fan, the Philips Ventilator HA2728, which has ambitions larger than its small size with its bright colours and smooth curvy design.
"The sounds from the piece have almost all come from manipulating the recording, using sampling and time-stretching. I built a patch in Pure Data with various algorithms to play with the sound, and then ‘played’ this as an instrument which I recorded and clipped-up to arrange in Logic Pro.
"At the start of the piece I have attempted to suggest that the listener is zooming-in to the sound in the same way that you can zoom in visually with a microscope, so that you become very small as the environment enlarges around you, perhaps how the fan would sound to a fly or a gnat.
"The only sound used in addition to the original sound file is a field recording of a suburban soundscape, with the sound of traffic, birds and a plane. This is to bring the listener back to the context of this human artefact, the desk fan, with obvious parallels between the rotating fan and the rotation of the blades in the jet engines.
"A lot of the sounds have been generated from the ‘click’ of the on/off switch, the percussive element of which has been exploited, and sculpted into the off-kilter rhythmic section that can slightly disturb the listener for not conforming to a regular beat.
"The original file is played in reverse at the end to contain the piece in a mirrored structure with the original sound at the start, closing the self-contained window into the world of sounds that I hear inside the fan."
This is part of the Obsolete Sounds project, the world’s biggest collection of disappearing sounds and sounds that have become extinct – remixed and reimagined to create a brand new form of listening. Explore the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/obsolete-sounds