Disquiet Junto 0219 Breath Dance



The Junto this week was proposed by Paolo Salvagione and involves creating an audio backdrop for a piece of choreography that utilises only the sound of soft breaths.

When I started thinking about manipulating breath recordings, I wanted something that would be more interesting than heavy breathing close to a microphone. Then I remembered the recording made while having sex earlier this year.

That piece came about because I'd found a spank I'd uploaded to Youtube had become my most popular video. I'd shared that as it had been remixed into an acid sorta tune for a Junto. I'd also been reading how William S. Burroughs used audio to create spells and I was keen to get the result to sound like I was with two women.

So I went through the recording and selected snippets that featured breathing. In the process I got a few moans and groans, as well as a low sound that might've been a passing car. I made loops of these, then pitched the passing car into a couple of harmonic progressions. It was C, so I made it go C-E-A-G and also A-G. I changed the pitch of a couple of the other loops but didn't push them very far either.

Some loops were gated and one had Live's Beatrepeat effect added. Then it was a matter of triggering the loops to get a rough shape and editing them to get something that flowed.