Birds of a Feather for Radio Eye by Kyla Brettle began with the sense that this production is set in a suburban house with hard floors, perhaps linoleum, and one of those tacky returning doors that swing shut and bounce on their frame. The Producer voice drops in to tell us more about where we are and what we’re doing… we are in the home of scheming activists planing a guerrilla style covert rescue for neglected chickens in a battery environment. The field recording was surprisingly clean with no wind noise or interference, I wondered if maybe much of the field noise had been recorded separately, like with the suspense evoking heart beat.

I began thinking about my studio piece for the 24 Folio and how I might source and create studio sounds to tell my sonic story of the Yarra location I’ve chosen… sans chickens and with yidaki (didgeridoo).

Short blurb… 

The proof that art will concur machine. In an interview setting, musician Nick Costello stands with just a guitar in hand poised to perform his single, Shiver, when he reveals some truths about being a Melbourne artist.

Audio Organica – Introducing Nick Costello  

After consulting with Maria, the receptionist at the Melbourne City Council, I gained verbal permission to record the Audio Organica project under The Morell Bridge in South Yarra.

In this series, I hope to explore the aural effects of this space, and in addition, any cognitive affects that it may have on performers who are forced to compete with the sounds of the ducks, seagulls, joggers, cyclists and motor vehicle traffic.

I have been inspired by Trevor Cox of The University of Salford University UK in his research into the affects of sound (1).

My first participant to perform their sounds in the space is the solo artist, Nicholas (Nick) Costello. On a Friday morning, we ventured down to the river armed with 2 studio microphones, a Rode Nt1 and a NT1000, 1 H6 Zoom recorder with a wind sock, 3 stands and a guitar in the hope to gage the affects and effects of this space. I positioned the Rode microphones wide… one left and one right, these were plugged directly into the H6 XLR inputs. Nick was singing directly into the H6 XY mic that I set to 120 degree pattern so that I could capture a wider sound. The semiacoustic guitar was plugged into the jack input of the H6, however, I wasn’t happy with the tone from the guitar’s transducer, I found it thin and lacking clarity, therefore, I applied some EQ to enhance the lower frequencies. On setting up the Rodes, I carelessly left the NT1000 leaning up against a rail where it fell and hit the ground with force, luckily, the shock mount seemed to take the brunt of the impact.

What I discovered was that, during the recording, the passers by would not ‘act naturally’ and make the noises that they would have had we not been recording, walkers and joggers seemed to consciously tiptoe past us, which for me said a lot about respect for creators, however, this somewhat skewed the results as our very presence had altered the result.

I was compelled to ask Nick to elaborate on a point while we were recording, however, I was  slightly off microphone and as a result, my question was barely audible. Being a follower of Werner Herzog’s work, I remembered that he sometimes patches in his voice later in post production in similar situations.

My question was in relation to Nick’s extracurricular activities, I asked, “Why do you do so many other things?”, it became apparent that Nick, like many creators in Melbourne, has more than just one specialist stream, he is a person of many talents. And it was this that made me wonder, is the need to embrace several disciplines a result of a growing society with a short attention span, or are we exposed to too many opportunities resulting in an inability to choose just one through indecision, do we have to move faster and work harder than our ancestors to compete with our successors, or could the facilitation of the arts be neglected by those who are meant to nurture us? Considering Nick’s remarkable performance beneath the Morell Bridge, sonically wrestling with a cacophony of distractions, I highly doubt that he has a short attention span, his cognition in the melee was was notable immutable.

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Further influences and references:

1. Cox, T. (21 August, 2010), Pg. 44, Past Echoes: New Scientist, London UK , Reed Elsevier.
2. McLuhan, M. (1964), Pg.3-6 and 64-66, ‘Introduction’ and ‘Challenge and Collapse: The Nemesis of Creativity, an excerpt from Understanding Media, London and New York, McGraw-Hill
3. McHugh, S. (2009) Hindsight – Marrying Out, Australia, ABC Radio National
4. Carranza, R.  de la Rocha, Z, & Theodore.J, One Day As A Lion, band EP, (2008), USA, Ocean Way Recording.
5. Till, R. (15th of November, 2014), Pg. 44, Past Notes: New Scientist, London UK, Reed Elsevier.
6. Costello. N, (2015), Song, Shiver, Australia.

Short blurb… 

This is a didactic report on the concept behind the Audio Organica project focussing on the Morell Bridge sound space as a medium.

Audio Organica – The Producer

The idea of Audio Organica relates back to Marshall McLuhan’s notion that the age of anxiety is upon us, and the defragmentation that exists between man, compels us to participate in electric media as a part of our bodies (2). This is as true now as it was in 1964 seen in the repetition of the mechanical age’s extension of our limbs and its likeness to the digital age’s extending of our senses. Sound is one sense that has been heavily impacted by the latter — it is everywhere, and there are endless ways to harvest and capture it, however sometimes, our senses can be whitewashed by not only the ease of access to sound manipulation programs like Protools, but by the residual spill from the mechanical age heard in noise pollution.

Having fallen down the rabbit hole of digital sound, I sometimes forget what things sounded like when they were first produced — spoken, sang, or plucked. Such heightened simulacra extending so far from the original has caused a kind of anxiety in me. I have on occasion been left behind by the rapidly moving advances of software, like with the Protools 11 update, and therefore, thought I could combat this by returning sound to the Earth — however oil soaked the soil may be (1). I summoned the help from some of Melbourne’s talented multi-disciplined sound artist to express their oral and aural thoughts to the ducks, swans, fish, joggers, rowers and semitrailers.

To preface the project, I recorded my didactic style voiceover with an NT1000 microphone on Protools, and an SE reflection filter was used to reduce sonic bounce. I have looped a section of Nick’s guitar playing for the introduction and I have used an extended portion of the same song to finish. The whispers were recorded in the studio environment and duplicated on several tracks to emulate The Whispering Wall (6). To increase the overall volume and limit the peaks, I have applied a Maxim limiter to a stereo master track, much of the session has volume automation applied.

On reflection, I have been made aware of the work that must go into high-end radio productions such as Radio National, This American Life and Radio Lab, furthermore, I have learned about the importance of controlling background noise where possible — I am astounding at just how immune I have become to the sound of the city hum!

I began to wonder what this space would have been like several hundred years ago, before westerners arrived, which brought me to an idea for the next piece… I am hoping to interview the Indigenous Arts Officer for The Torch and invite him to play traditional instruments and talk in depth about the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation in the space.

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References and credits

1. Cox, T. (21 August, 2010), Pg. 44, Past Echoes: New Scientist, London UK , Reed Elsevier.
2. McLuhan, M. (1964), Pg.3-6 and 64-66, ‘Introduction’ and ‘Challenge and Collapse: The Nemesis of Creativity’ an excerpt from Understanding Media, London and New York, McGraw-Hill
3. Till, Dr. R. (15th of November, 2014), Pg. 44, Past Notes: New Scientist, London UK , Reed Elsevier.
4. Luis de Victoria, T. (2011), Choir, sourced from FreeSounds.org, 20110409.choir.01.wav by dobroide.
5. Costello, N. (2015), Song: Shiver, Australia.
6. Whispers by Juliette Hanson (2015).

Having fallen down the rabbit hole of digital audio, I sometimes forget what things sounded like when they were first produced — spoken, sung, or plucked. Such heightened simulacra extending so far from the original has caused a kind of anxiety in me. I have on occasion been left behind by the rapidly moving advances of software, like with a recent Protools update, and therefore, thought I could combat this by returning sound to the Earth, however oil soaked the soil may be. I felt that I could summon some of Melbourne’s talented multi-disciplined sound artist to express their oral and aural thoughts to the ducks, swans, fish, joggers, rowers and semitrailers.

However, I could never stay mad at Protools… even at my most Bohemian!

McHugh, Siobhán, (2009) “Marrying Out” Hindsight. ABC Radio National