Time in isolation has turned into an amorphous mass. Repetitive housebound activities render even the most well-organised of us struggling to keep track of time. Desperately seeking to extract an iota of excitement, mundane occurrences are seen in new light. With a pair of Cageian ears and through the assistance of trusty intoxicants, the busy street by the window turns into a clamorous symphony; each vehicle becomes a distinct instrument, with their different tyres, transmissions, and powertrains inducing unique timbres within this accidental composition.

Parahrono is part artistic expression, part reassurance; as long as vehicles are passing through, the world is yet to collapse. Focusing on the sound, the mind plays its usual tricks. Time becomes distorted; rhythms gallop alike drunken louts, textures intertwine in their frantic pursuit for attachment. The mundane becomes superb, and vice versa. Queens Drive in Childwall was recorded through the windows of a ground floor flat, the composer’s own isolated bubble. A pair of condenser microphones are poking through the blinds, and another pair of contacts attached to the glass, itself now a resonator, victim to the violent gusts of air blown by the passing vehicles. As long as vehicles are passing through, the world is yet to collapse. https://manolimoriaty.com

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Subespai – “City circles”: sound collage on urban canvas
Scene. A nondescript hum smothers the echoes of a distant playground. The eeriness intensifies as the afternoon loses the daily battle against the evening soundscape. “Where is this?”. The sonic familiarity puts the name of a place on the tip of the tongue right as the movement changes, or does it? The hum left unannounced, that’s a fact; now there’s something else filling the space, something deeper, more spiritual even. Repetition gives way to flow; quietness prevails, for a while at least. Feedback turns into flares as the night falls. “Is this still the West?”. Continental lines may or may not have been crossed, the only way to find out is to wander further, facing novelty until everything becomes known again. A faint sadness lingers in the air. End of scene.
Composed & performed by Subespai (Mauri Edo). Recorded by Matthew Syres. Subespai is Mauri Edo, a Sydney-based sound artist working with found sound, repetition and volume to explore and express complex thoughts and ideas on existence, society and the individual.
www.subespai.net

Barangaroo by Sebastian Sequoiah-Grayson
Several years ago I took a field recorder to several constructions sites around Sydney Australia. I transcribed the audio recordings I made into graphic notation. I then used the resulting graphic charts as improvisation platforms. This piece is from the Barangaroo construction site. I have been saving it and I have never improvised from it before (although I did transcribe it some time ago).

Sebastian Sequoiah-Grayson is a fingerstyle noise guitarist from Sydney.

https://sebastiansequoiah-grayson.bandcamp.com/

Just a minute…can you show me this?… And that to?…and THAT….?.. I’m sorry I don’t like it.

A cup of tea, the light, the socket, the tap, a fork, a knife, a spoon, a plate, a glass, another chair, there’s no hot water, it’s too expensive, too big, too small – may I see the manager please – can you show me some more, where’s the gentleman’s convenience?

I’m hungry-during-I’m lost-and-it’s important perhaps-it’s urgent –very-not-hurry up!! There, it is-now none/it’s-soon-is it? Then it isn’t Ah/no/nothing at all. Is there– here there isn’t, there aren’t, right, there isn’t any,

I’d like a shampoo and set please

by Jon Panther

During the course of the previous year I found myself contemplating the hybridisation of performance and radiophonics (whatever radiophonics means) …. how would a marriage like this pan out….? The piece takes a lot of its materials (which includes composition, synthesis, found sound, montage and vocal performance) from a gig mid last year at Metanast in Manchester UK curated by the amazing Manoli Moriaty

Is it as disrespectful to record the sound of the temple gong as it feels to photograph the scene? And in the process, is it thus disrespectful to record the Russian tour guide, and the screaming child, and the power tool, and rustle of velcro from camera bags?

The syllable ‘spect’ within respect is the same as in spectate, spectacle.

Respectus via old French and thus Latin: the action of looking back. This implication of the seen within respect, does it let listening off the hook?

Is it simply that listening requires more time, requires a sense of being truly present, and that this offers more opportunity for connection, contemplation… or am I telling myself convenient truths, to excuse my aural ghoulishness, to separate myself from the tourists?

http://www.gailpriest.net

Recorded in Ho Chi Minh City, Dalat, Halong Bay and Hanoi, Feb 2018.

Gail Priest a Katoomba/Sydney-based artist whose practice encompasses performance, recording, sound design for dance and theatre, installation, curation and writing. She has performed and exhibited nationally and internationally and has several CD releases on her own label, Metal Bitch, as well as other labels including Flaming Pines. She is also a curator of concerts and exhibitions and writes factually and fictively about sound and media arts. www.gailpriest.net