the sound of music
This was originally written on 02.02.2002.
A typical Friday night. The flatmates were debating whether to go out or not. Iain was downing the cider, and Rob the cider. Marco was sober on account of having consumed a ton of headache medicine. We were just chilling out, making diner, talking shit (of course), and watching TV. Top of the Pops, a show that plays taped live performances by chart leading artists was one, and some of the acts were utter shwill. So, I made the comment that I could write a song every bit as good as the one being played on the television. Marco asked if I wanted to try, and we retreated to my room with Iain’s guitar. Twenty minutes later we had produced a short ditty, an ode to Iain. It was awesome. Marco has this great, resonant, voice, and when we performened the song for Iain, it was filled with all the bloated cliches of pop and alternative music. “Don’t you knowowow … He looks good in a kilt. Don’t you knowowow … That he’s sturdily built.” Hilarious.
After we were done dorking around with the car, Pete announced that he was going to an electroacoustic concert and asked if I wanted to go. Sure, I said, and we ran off to the concert hall. The show wasn’t free as I had suspected, but it was well worth my three quid. The concert was part of a weekend production titled “Sounds Found and Fixed: Weekend of Sonic Art”. Electroacoustic music seems to be a collection of found sound and electronically produced sounds, or sounds that are tweaked out of an instrument in a way that it was never meant to be played. You’ve probably heard this music before. Think the dark soundscapes that come with the opening credits of movies like Seven. So, I had heard music like this before, but never in a setting like this. The room was wired with over twenty speakers of different sizes and power. The performers played compositions off of CD or computer and worked the mixing board to fill the room with these strange sounds. Pete studies music technology at the university and he was telling me about how one could hear different songs and reverberations depending on where one sits in the room. Sitting in the theatre, I thought, this is why I came to Edinburgh. Edinburgh is really a cultural mecca of sorts for fringe art and it’s so, so good to discover new things for the first time.