Feeling for Sound- Further Research

Based on the feedback I got for Beyond the Boundaries, I am doing some of the further research that was suggested on my feedback to be able to expand my project.

David Toop-

David Toop is a musician/composer, a writer and a curator who works as a sound artist and as a visiting professor at the University of the Arts in London. My initial research led me to a short interview that was done with him that I found on vimeo. it detailed what he does, where he is working currently and his methods of working. In this video he detailed quite a few interesting thoughts on sound design. he mentioned sound never being in existence. It is always in a state of emergence and decay. He also does a lot of improvisation sessions at the University of the Arts using anything available. He also mentioned a sense of ambience being just about discovered by the wider sound community, and the exploration of it being made of more importance in recent times.

This is the video:

Following on from this I looked up some of his work to see how his theory has been put into his practical work.

The first piece I viewed was Decomposition/Decay which is a sound piece that appears to use instruments and foley to create the piece. The main thing I saw in this was the idea of ambience that he spoke of. The piece is never silent, even in the quieter moments there is always some slight rumble or noise in the piece. For me it is something that I am looking into creating as nothing is ever silent. There is always a slight ambience in a place and I find that particularly fascinating. You can listen to this piece here:

The second piece I looked at was a far more digitally created sounding piece called Tricyrtis Latifolia. This piece includes some voice work and some foley, but it sounds far more digitally created, with a lot of static and interference type sounds. What I see in this, in terms of Toop's working methods is the idea of emergence and decay. In this piece there are lots of sounds coming and going, not necessarily the same sounds either, although as in the previous piece there is always sound in the piece. You can listen to this piece here:

I love the mash up of different kinds of sound design, from digital creation to foley recordings of sounds. Also, the idea that there may have been improvisation elements to this is exciting to me, as the acoustics and results created on that day may always be slightly different depending on who was in the room, what equipment was in there, whether outside sources affected the recordings etc. In terms of my own project, it gives me something to think about in terms of the ambience at the time of recording. I am trying to recreate atmospheres and feelings from the past, partly using ambience, and I need to consider how spaces are going to sound and affect the sound design as a whole.