Disquiet Junto 0238 Magnifying Contact

The Junto this week asked for a recording of a recording of a piece of music.

Does recording electric hair clippers adrift the basin top count as music? I had planned to record a loop to pitch musically before adding percussion.

In the end I think the clippers add a good texture to the sound of their motor through its electromagnetic field and then reverb.

I've also recorded the vibration on the basin with a cheap contact mic, as well as recording the sound through a Rode on the camera to capture process.

Also in the mix is a recording of a clothes drying-rack using both my cheap and expensive contact microphones, the latter is a Barcus Berry Planar Wave.

The bars all resonate, as do the floorboards of the house and the result is pleasing. It reminded me of the coast house stairwell I used in the last Junto.




P.S. I had a comment from a listener that they couldn't distinguish the 'music itself' from the 'production' and it made me wonder if I should've picked a more standard musical instrument. My approach was to include sounds of the clipper recorded during the process via the camera as well as via EMF and contact microphones, then include more of these than I normally would but it's not the usual handling noise that one gets playing an instrument.

But maybe distinctions between 'music' and 'process' aren't helpful when a non-musical process is given musical treatment via effects like resonators, reverb and delay?

P.P.S. This got me thinking how I'd have mixed the track if I wasn't emphasising handling noise and process. The audio in the video below doesn't have the audio from the camera, only the EMF and contact mics.