Guest Lecture – Luke Pickering

This week’s guest lecturer was previous student Luke Pickering, who started his studies at Lincoln in 2009. He has now gone on to be fully involved in studio work, having the pleasure of working at the legendary Church Studios in London, now owned and ran by Paul Epworth – Epworth is a respected Grammy award winning song-writer and producer. His impressive discography includes heavyweights in the industry such as Adele, Bruno Mars, Coldplay and Bloc Party (only to name a few) and tracks featuring in blockbuster films like Django Unchained and Skyfall.

To begin with Luke spoke about the current studio set up at The Church Studios; they have two 72 track desks, which are two out of the only five that have been created, and also there newly built Studio 2 room which in his own words is the best SSL mixing room in London; a very futuristic, clean looking studio. Very desirable. He then went on to speak about Miloco, who in Luke’s own words are “keeping studios as we know it alive”. They are a company that not only run studios and help with clients booking those studios out, but they also expand into studio builds, designs and installations, repairs and they also sort out work experience, and not just in London, but throughout the world.

Speaking of the more ‘traditional’ studio roles he first spoke of a studio assistant, who’s tasks include: equipment inventory – something Luke said he has to keep on top of for The Church Studios, which is over 900 pieces of equipment. They have to arrange repairs for equipment, so this means knowing that a piece of equipment is too far gone for you yourself to simply fix, which leads on to another task of a studio assistant; making life easier for the assistant engineer; to know what is happening in the studio such as equipment that is out for repair, so they do not have to even think about those sorts of things. A studio assistant will also organise bookings if someone wants to book out any equipment or a studio room, and they will even help with runners. Those on work experience. Luke then made the point that you need to be ready for anything; a studio environment is not a 9-5 job where what happens day in day out is pretty much the same, it can at times be extremely stressful or at others be really slow and you will find yourself sometimes not needed in that room. Another point made; don’t be in a room that you’re not needed in. Following on from the studio assistant summary, Luke then described the roles of an assistant engineer, which include: knowing the studio inside out, which means you are the first to arrive and set up and you are then also in charge of the pack down; you know where everything goes, you know how it all works and when the engineer needs something you can get it for them straight away. If a previous client comes in, you should be able to recall the setup they previously had and have this ready for them. You also keep everyone ‘fed and watered’ – which, of course, means making a good cup of tea. He makes the point that if you are in this role, or even a runner and on work experience, it is important to make sure you make a good impression and make the effort. Make people notice you.

Luke ended the talk with some do’s and don’ts with CV and cover letter writing. For the do’s, make sure your cover letter is personal to the position you are applying for, not for that job you’ve been dreaming of since you were 16. This leads to making sure you do your research into the place you are applying for; showing them you are interested in them specifically and you’re curious. Also show that you are flexible and that you acknowledge those mundane jobs – being a runner, making tea and showing you know that you won’t be sat down behind a desk any time soon. Listing your skills as far as being computer and social media literate is a good thing to show as far as skills are concerned because it shows you are intuitive, willing/wanting to learn things of your own accord. It is important as well to not talk about yourself too much (do NOT call yourself a ‘recording engineer, or producer) and do not write more than one page as your cover letter. Employers read countless applications, don’t make them bored.

To conclude this guest lecture, Luke told us about his experience of leaving uni and showing he was adamant on not ending up in a 9-5 job, but showing that working in a studio is not as glamorous as what some people might perceive it as. It is hard work and you have to work your way up – making tea and doing errands is more than likely part of the things you will have to do. But in the end, if it’s really what you want to make a career out of, it will always be worth it. The thing that I took from this lecture more than anything was not only confirming good CV and cover letter writing, but being told about the company Miloco. Founding out about companies that are big on work experience and can really help me with getting in to my desired career is important right now, being nearly half way through my final year already.

 

Art piece

As stated before, alongside the soundscape I am going to be creating an art piece which I have now started working on. When I think of and listen to soundscapes I immediately get a futuristic, space image in my head, so this is going to be the theme of my piece. But I had the idea that because I am going to be incorporating industrial, city sounds in the composition I am going to include a city view in the art piece. After thinking about different ways of doing this I have settled on the galaxy like drawing being the forefront, but painting it as tho in the corner it is burning away, breaking apart and the city is behind it. Almost disturbing the peacefulness of space.

Right now I have sketched it out in my art book but I will be doing the piece on a bigger canvas. The galaxy part will be painted but I’m still deciding on if I will paint the city part or sketch it. Either way that part will be black and white; to be in complete contrast with the other part of the piece. I will most likely make the decision on that after I have painted the first part.

For the way in which this will be displayed still depends on the client part of this project, but I’m not sure if this will be a still image or a video to go along with the piece. In my tutorial the idea of filming the finished piece was discussed; slowly revealing the full piece. Also in some sort of way making it look like the piece actually is burning or it could literally just be the piece; if in a gallery or online.

Sonophilia

On the 4th of October I attended a live experimental night at the St Mary Le Wigford Church, here in Lincoln, as part of the Sonophilia festival festival; Lincoln’s festival of “sound and conferences for lovers of audio, both professional and amateur.” The evening was hosted by ESP2 (Extra Sonic Practice) a collective of Lincoln University artists and scholars. I took interest in attending this because of the experimental aspects of my desired project.

The first performance I watched was by Marie Thompson and Linda Kemp, who both used flutes along with amps and simply played. But they were manipulating the instrument so the sounds we were hearing were not the ones you would expect to hear from those instruments; if you were not there to physically see them playing them you wouldn’t of believed it. Surprisingly it wasn’t until after the performance when I looked on the website that I realised their performance was in fact improvised; how they managed to play out the live piece so in-tune with each other is what made me think that everything was planned and practiced. Throughout I wasn’t really sure what was going on and what was the point in it, but their aim was to show the amount of different sounds you can produce from something that has always been designed and perceived as producing a distinct sound and only that.

The second performance I witnessed was by Gruinard Ensemble which right now I am still unsure about some aspects of their piece (I have sent an email questioning these, so possible edit of post in future*). This was also a live improvisation yet this really did sound like a worked on soundscape. Their piece had a long build up but when it got into it there was many industrial sounds incorporated into it, such as cars driving by, what sounded like rain on the pavement and trains; this part intrigued me the most because it is how I wish to go about my piece. I want a build up where I’m using synths and possibly some manipulated recordings, then having untouched industrial recordings gradually being layered into it and then making a big impact. The areas of this piece I am still waiting to understand is when one of the guys was playing a brass instrument into a microphone so quietly it was almost impossible to hear it. I’m not sure if this was the intention or if it just somehow managed to get lost amongst everything else we were hearing.

Although I didn’t experience Emily Wilczek’s experiment at the time of the event I did the week after, and it was using a standard coat hanger with some string; two pieces of string attached on either side, twisted a few times around your finger and then you stick your fingers in your ear and you bang the coat hanger on a surface and it really does sound like a gong. Another example of sound being manipulated, to create a different sound from an instrument or object that is not expected. Giving it another/new meaning.

References:

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Guest Lecture – Jez-Riley French

Quoting from his own personal website:

“Using intuitive composition, field recording, improvisation and photography, Jez has been exploring his enjoyment of and interest in detail, simplicity and his emotive response to places and situations for over 3 decades.” When growing up he was a choir boy and before every session they were all made to ‘listen to the church’ for 20 minutes, and at the time it drove him absolutely mad but now, as he looks back, he’s realised that it had a very big impact on his life. Paying attention to the sounds that are almost overshadowed and lying underneath.

 

Jez-Riley French is, as I would describe, a sound explorer, and throughout his talk it was evident that he enjoys exploring sound deeper than most would. He began his talk with explaining contact microphones, developed by Jez, that instead of picking up air vibrations they pick up solid object vibrations. This he says is beneficial because the manage to pick up a full range of frequencies – also they don’t pick up hardly any air vibrations – this was also displayed by another of his recordings he showed us, which was on a print rack. They can pick up sounds from almost 2 miles away, which was proven by a gunshot in a piece of his from a score that he recorded in Italy. Another of his recordings he played us again used contact mics where they were placed on barbwire with the sounds being produced by insects and leafs touching the wire; the same way the noises were created for the original Star Wars. He also briefly spoke about hydrophones, which are microphones that can record in liquids; then playing another piece of work that is his, of water with vinegar in to bring out the minerals (dolomite).

Most of his work is durational, which has been played in galleries and exhibitions such as Tate Modern and organisations in Iceland and Italy, and this is because he is interested in the psychological attention we as humans have, especially in relation to music and sound. From this he recommends that when doing field recordings to keep recording for longer than you’d originally think, because if you record for 30 seconds you will end up wishing you had 10 minutes of that recording. More sounds means more use for more projects. While on the topic of field recordings Jez was very clear with making his opinion on the definition of what most view field recordings as, and that he disagrees. He says it is “not just nature and the serenity of the countryside” because we are all part of nature. Environmental recordings should also, in his opinion, be played at the volume in accordance to reality, so basically do not mess with it; when it is untouched and at it’s real level from the recording you hear more, because our brains psychologically recognise the sounds as reality.

He goes a little bit more in-depth on the topic of nature and field recordings by saying that since we have evolved, and technology along with us, we have “ruined our ears”. This he states has been caused by too much heavy compression; and even jokes that cows could wipe us out by sneaking up on us, because we just wouldn’t hear them. Then talking about infrasound (frequencies too low for the human ear) and ultrasound (too high for the human ear)  French makes known that we can not hear infrasound’s but we can sense them; using an example from scientists who believe that if the world stopped turning we would die in two weeks from the lack of vibrations we are so used to yet so unaware of constantly throughout life. He also played a recording for us he did in the mountains, where there was no traffic etc. using geophone’s, of just the world passing by. Then telling us an amusing story of bird experts who spent time arguing over what species they could hear in his recording at Fjallsarlon Glacier Lake, but yet those so called birds were actually in fact the ice melting; this played on the fact that we get used to hearing what we want to hear rather than what’s really there.

I really enjoyed this talk, even though in all honesty I wasn’t expecting to because of my lack of previous experience in field recordings, but it really gave me a bit of confidence in a way for me doing it for my project. Also when he spoke about hydrophones and then I found out the university now has them I am interested in using those. And on his end comment when asked about the pictures used for his recordings and scores, he said that he feels still images work better with sound, and as this being something I am doing for my project it made me feel more confident in what I’m doing.

Examples of Similar Work

Over the last couple of weeks I have been trying to find other examples similar to my desired project. Although I haven’t found any, as of yet, that are completely identical to what I wish to do (as I now know mine is more unique than I originally thought) I have found some installations and festivals that fall around the same concept and end goal.

I first came across an exhibition that was held at The National Gallery in London, July to September 2015. The exhibition commissioned musicians from all types of sound art backgrounds, this list including: DJ, producer and Mercury-Prize winner Jamie XX from the successful The XX, Susan Philipsz OBE, a Turner-Prize winner who is known for her work on installations linking music and architecture, and Nico Muhly, a orchestral composer heavily involved in ballet and opera. For this they had to choose a painting and compose a piece of music in response to it. This is, in a way, almost opposite to how I am going about my piece, as I am creating the soundscape and then creating a painting in response to it/as I go along. This is something quite fascinating to me as my plan and desire is to create an art piece in reflection to the composition I myself will create, however these artists are composing to pieces of art that are hundreds of years old and not their own work. The point of the exhibition is to get viewers to “hear the painting, see the sound” so the musicians and sound artists had to work hard to create a connection not only between the composition and the piece of art, but also to the audience.

Another example I came across was the 2016 Electronic Literature Organisation International Conference and Media Art Festival. They invited theorists and practitioners to explore the point of the conference and festival, which is to consider sound as a form of literature. They asked them to explore this through a wide spread variety of different media, such as sound walks, sound collages, field recordings and, the one most important to me, soundscapes. It was to encourage them to think about storytelling through sound sources rather than the human voice. No screens, no talking, just sound sources and sound effects, or even silence to tell a narrative “designed for careful listening experiences”. Although this does not relate to my project in the sense of the art piece I will be creating along side it, it does relate in the narrative area; the attempt to create an emotional connection, to create a story that the listener becomes engaged and invested in.

Both of these examples relate to each other heavily on the narrative and connection aspect. For a piece to be successful, whether it be as part of an exhibition or an online forum, a connection, a feeling, has to be made between said piece and the listener/viewer.

 

References: 

https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/whats-on/soundscapes

http://elo2016.com/festival/sound-installations/