Hi Leon, thanks for giving me some of your time to answer a few questions. I see from your work that technological innovation is a big thing in your work, what won't you be without when creating your own sound art?
A field recorder and granular synthesis engine. The combination opens up a sound pallet and discovery opportunities for years to come.
Sound Art has it's underground stars, was there any particular artist or singular piece of work that introduced the genre to you?
Not really. Sound art hit me about forty years ago and came to me in bits and pieces of radio art, storytelling, experimental psychedelic rock pieces, sound use in conceptual art. It was, and still is, everywhere.
Nowadays I'm inspired by a more cinematic and storytelling sound art form. Two excellent sources are Soundproof, an Australian production by Miyuki Jokiranta and The White Whale by CyNarPictures.
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/soundproof/
http://www.cynarpictures.com/the-white-whale
Looking at the experimental side of music then Raffaele Pezzella, also known as Sonologist, is a great influencer. Raffaele runs the 'Unexplained Sounds' label and Facebook group. Every Sunday he hosts an hour-long listening session on Mixlr. In doing so, he has taught me so much about experimental music/sound art and introduced me to wonderful creative musicians in the process. Highly recommended for anyone looking for unusual new sounds and music.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/unexplainedsounds/
Do you have any memorable experiences regarding sound that's still very vivid today?
I'm very interested in the sounds that convey a sense of safety. When I was a young kid, I used to snuggle on the floor, hidden from view, listening to grownups mumbling without actually listening or understanding what they were saying. These soothing soundscapes are still dear to me. Sites like Coffitivity.com use sounds like this to boost productivity.
Since a sound artist won the turner prize of contemporary art in 2012 many artists have been working to bring sound art back to the attention of the public, is there any artist you love the most?
Manja Ristić, very talented instrumentalist and performer from Belgrade, Serbia.
http://manjaristic.blogspot.nl/
What projects are you currently working on?
My current focus is to get out of the woodshed, meeting new people, getting fresh perspectives on sound, art, music. Let's perform together and see where that brings us.
Soundscapes
The soundscape is the component of the acoustic environment that can be perceived by humans. There is a varied history of the use of soundscape depending on discipline - ranging from urban design to wildlife ecology. An important distinction is to separate soundscape from the broader term acoustic environment. The acoustic environment is the combination of all the acoustic resources within a given area - natural sounds and human-caused sounds – as modified by the environment.
The term soundscape was coined by Canadian composer and environmentalist, R. Murray Schafer. According to this author there are three main elements of the soundscape:
A soundscape is a sound or combination of sounds that forms or arises from an immersive environment. The study of soundscape is the subject of acoustic ecology. The idea of soundscape refers to both the natural acoustic environment, consisting of natural sounds, including animal vocalizations and, for instance, the sounds of weather and other natural elements; and environmental sounds created by humans, through musical composition, sound design, and other ordinary human activities including conversation, work, and sounds of mechanical origin resulting from use of industrial technology. Crucially, the term soundscape also includes the listener's perception of sounds heard as an environment: “how that environment is understood by those living within it” [1] and therefore mediates their relations. The disruption of these acoustic environments results in noise pollution.
The term "soundscape" can also refer to an audio recording or performance of sounds that create the sensation of experiencing a particular acoustic environment, or compositions created using the found sounds of an acoustic environment, either exclusively or in conjunction with musical performances.[2][3]
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Keynote sounds
This is a musical term that identifies the key of a piece, not always audible ... the key might stray from the original, but it will return. The keynote sounds may not always be heard consciously, but they "outline the character of the people living there" (Schafer). They are created by nature (geography and climate): wind, water, forests, plains, birds, insects, animals. In many urban areas, traffic has become the keynote sound.
Pauline Oliveros, composer of post-World War II electronic art music, defined the term "soundscape" as "All of the waveforms faithfully transmitted to our audio cortex by the ear and its mechanisms".[4]
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Sound signals
These are foreground sounds, which are listened to consciously; examples would be warning devices, bells, whistles, horns, sirens, etc.
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Soundmark
This is derived from the term landmark. A soundmark is a sound which is unique to an area. In his 1993 book, The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World, Schafer wrote, "Once a Soundmark has been identified, it deserves to be protected, for soundmarks make the acoustic life of a community unique."[5]
... and the elements have been further defined as to essential sources:
Bernie Krause, musician and bioacoustician, redefined the soundscape elements in terms of their three main sources, geophony, biophony, and anthrophony.[6]
Consisting of the prefix, geo (gr. earth), and phon (gr. sound), this refers to the soundscape sources that are generated by non-biological natural sources such as wind in the trees, water in a stream or waves at the ocean, and earth movement, the first sounds heard on earth by any sound-sentient organism.
Consisting of the prefix, bio (gr. life) and the suffix for sound, this term refers to all of the non-human, non-domestic biological soundscape sources of sound.
Consisting of the prefix, anthro (gr. human), this term refers to all of the sound signatures generated by humans.