Problems of Begining
In the context of my practice, beginning a project is rather daunting to think about. “The blank slate might be the most intimidating place in a creative environment.” (DeSantis, 2015). I usually surround myself when the “whys” of making and, later “how”. I also find myself stuck in unrealistic scenarios, which subsequently cause a lack of motivation to accomplish any work.
Dr J Milo Taylor, in his first lectures, encourages students to engage their work under the ideas of the composer and educator Dennis DeSantis. In 2015, he wrote a book entitled ” Making Music: 74 Creative Strategies for Electronic Music Producers”, which became very helpful for this class.
Despite the target being electronic musicians, the book suits any practice. I don’t identify as an electronic musician but as a sound artist and designer, and not all the examples in the book relate to my practice. However, right in the first chapter, Problemas with Beginning, DeSantis suggest that one of the ways to commence any project is to start with what you know: the writer suggests that a “real instrument” might be easier to work with rather than a MIDI or DAW focused instrument, but I saw it the other way around. Once I started uploading my field recordings onto the DAW, ideas began to flow, and that energy extended as soon as I got myself practising and making ideas work. Before that, I had my field recordings in a folder without playing them and without a clue how to use them creatively.
The Piece – No te muevas, mira, escucha.
In the same chapter, DeSantis states that the only way of producing is by just doing. And that’s what I precisely did. Without thinking of any pre-established idea or concept, I placed the field recordings in the daw and started playing with them. After 20 minutes of listening, a structured idea began to form, and as soon as I got it clear, I stuck to it and explored ways of enhancing it.
Before starting, I thought of something that kept me reluctant – what material I should use. I didn’t have immediate access to any instrument or tool to record sound. I did have internet, but I didn’t have a vital subject. Therefore I used field recordings of a colleague of mine – Gonzalo Vergara. He is a sound recordist for films and significant events, and days before, I asked him for a sound he had recorded on set that he found particularly interesting. The folder he sent me had at least 7 files, which contained audios of particular sounds – the sound of a bird that could be heard from afar, the sound of a cat licking a microphone, the sound of an old boiler, and similar noises.
While playing around with the sounds, I remembered Francisco Lopéz paper Environmental Sound Matter, where he mentions the impossibility of hiding oneself from a field recording without adultering the file (Lopéz, 1998). Gonzalo’s recordings were filled with rustles and microphone noises, so I decided to work around that idea and created a wall of layered noises resembling a visceral and disturbing percussive drone.
The piece’s name is “No te muevas, mira, escucha”, meaning Don’t move, look, listen, which was what one of Gonzalo’s colleagues was saying while recording the boiler. It is interesting to relate the piece’s name with the music itself. The piece has a lot of movement and works around non-quiet soundscapes.
Conclusion
I found this experience to be very liberating. It freed me from regular preassumptions about art making and its fundaments. This piece could also be the beginning of my portfolio idea. What will come after this? An album? An installation? And audiovisual piece?
References
DeSantis, D. (2015) Making music: 74 creative strategies for electronic music producers. Berlin: Ableton.
Lopéz, F. (1998) Environmental Sound Matter. V2.