DC LISTENING LOUNGE
  • What is Sound Scene?
    • Sound Scene 2021
    • Sound Scene 2020
    • Sound Scene 2019
    • Sound Scene 2018 >
      • Featured Artists 2018
      • Free Workshops 2018
      • Live Performance Schedule 2018
    • Sound Scene 2017 >
      • 2017 MNI Vibrotactile Composing Workshop
      • 2017 Featured Artists >
        • Outdoor Plaza
        • Lower Level
        • Lobby
        • Second Level
        • Third Level
        • Elevator
        • Sculpture Garden
        • Ring Theater
        • Accessibility Booster Campaign
      • 2017 Free Workshops!
      • 2017 Live Performance Schedule
  • Monthly Listening Lounges
  • Highlights
  • DCLL Explained
  • Contact
  • What is Sound Scene?
    • Sound Scene 2021
    • Sound Scene 2020
    • Sound Scene 2019
    • Sound Scene 2018 >
      • Featured Artists 2018
      • Free Workshops 2018
      • Live Performance Schedule 2018
    • Sound Scene 2017 >
      • 2017 MNI Vibrotactile Composing Workshop
      • 2017 Featured Artists >
        • Outdoor Plaza
        • Lower Level
        • Lobby
        • Second Level
        • Third Level
        • Elevator
        • Sculpture Garden
        • Ring Theater
        • Accessibility Booster Campaign
      • 2017 Free Workshops!
      • 2017 Live Performance Schedule
  • Monthly Listening Lounges
  • Highlights
  • DCLL Explained
  • Contact
DC LISTENING LOUNGE

Here are some Notes and highlights
From our monthly lounges

Dec Highlights

12/17/2021

0 Comments

 
The December Listening Lounge was another great one! And a beautiful way to wrap up 2021. An unexpected theme emerged connecting all the audio shared throughout the night! a sort of space/natural world connective through line.

We started off the evening going around introducing ourselves and sharing a sound that we might describe as “quiet” (though the adjective can certainly be relative)

Steve- the quietest birdsong in ambi within the mix of a story he published recently
Jocelyn- ¼ volume dog barks from the neighbors sweet pup downstairs.
Tanya- a mysterious electrical buzz stumping both her and her husband. This lead to a description of “anoyatrons” which may be an exciting new word for our community to employ.
Barry- is actively sanding the stairs in his house with an orbital sander which has an awful drone, “akin to hours and days at the dentist” so at the end of that each day is the quiet sound he delights in.
Neal- recalled the quiet sound of a musical prank that was pulled on him a long while back-- when someone tucked in a noise-generating greeting card under his bed. The pesky (impressive) prank played for 4 weeks before being uncovered.
Henry- rocks moving over water when the bicycles stop passing by


Audio:

Tanya shared some audio from an ongoing project that she's crafting using archive.org audio along with original music and design.
  • There was a thoughtful conversation of the contrast of the familiar / well known clips surrounded and remade into something altogether new and artistic and about how and when religious text can become a secular part of public life (and if it can? If it should be?)
  • Tanya explained that the project was/is inspired by drives in unfamiliar places and the obscure radio you can stumble upon, and number stations and comms back and forth to space. She's working on a personally curated “station” herself : tantroniq.com/seta
  • https://soundcloud.com/tantroniq/tantroniq-hello-good-earth/s-IRini0dKuij?si=7257307fc8914f8d93eecd58fa46203c&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
  • Henry recommended this terrestrial radio station MUSIC WITH SPACE on WPRB, 11pm-3am EST.


Neal, worked at the Crystal Bridges Museum, and for the 10 yr anniversary they wanted to bring the 120 acres of the property into the museum and he proposed and produced a work drawn from days and days of field recordings from that property and shared a clip with the group this evening.
https://soundcloud.com/vanwinkletunes/tandg-soundscape-final/s-hEHdmKxJba3?si=3b71df3cdf9e414b8328c61155612c9b&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
  • discussion included appreciation for the separations of seasons and silences- to keep visitors' ears engaged that this is intentional art work - not to be tuned out
  • beautiful distinct audio within the field sounds composed together
  • led to some debate of whether we are hearing frogs, goats or other animals. (later revealed to be spring peepers and bull frogs)
  • Neal used an audio moth recorder (https://www.openacousticdevices.info/audiomoth). And he's excited about ways to help the audio live on in fresh settings.
  • A discussion of how to handle a year of recordings, how to file, organize and make one's way through them. Neal uses a spectrogram to scan- bc humans can look faster than we can listen to bulk information and he learned to ID the sonic shapes of certain creatures along the way
  • discussion about how to create work that is “discoverable” and how to use data to make work available to the world beyond the immediate audiences.
  • Mentioned Phonography Austin and Barry and Tanya mentioned the Field Recording zoom meet up for field recordists which may start up again after the holidays (keep yer eyes and ears peeled!)
  • Neal is going to lead some sound walks in the winter too.


Time was flying with all the great discussion so we headed into the last audio clip of the evening shared by Henry. A beautiful wrap up to a captivating evening of sonic inspirations.


Henry shared his original sound and video work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n5YGZV0rHA
featuring an electric balalaika. Inspirations included Christmas and Pink Floyd
  • Neal pointed out the nostalgia of the sound... reverb and bright strings which really captured a winter night in all it's beauty.
  • Henry also used a cymbow and an alto Yamaha venova (here is an image:
https://www.amazon.com/Yamaha-YVS-100-Recorder/dp/B074R86GRQ)


Barry shared a parting listening link to an online show he was a part of. The show was organized around a prompt to create a 5-7 min piece just using field recordings. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF-KmybqivE&t=9052s


Looking forward to listening with you in January!
0 Comments

November Highlights

12/10/2021

0 Comments

 
Listening Lounge November Highlights



The night began is a quick go-round of introductions, who we are, what we love about audio and a sound that brings delight.


Alberto G.- has worked with sound since the 80's, in a sculptural way. He loves the sounds of pistol (slingshot) shrimp.


Ben P. - connecting from Annapolis MD, loves the sound of Carpano vermouth (good in many cocktails) and especially the uncorking of it. If he were a foley guy, Carpano Antica uncorked would be a go-to.


Steve M, now based in Baltimore MD, in the work he does if he can hear the personality spirit and soul of a person come through than that is a sound he really likes.


Jocelyn F. based in Minneapolis MN, podcast producer and a curator and organizer of Sound Scene. She loves the sound of blaring blasts – the kind made popular on radio shows- but made delightful by her former bandmate using the imitation of that sound effect to celebrate great moments in band practice.


Patrick Sullivan in DC. is getting into making audio for the first time even though they've always wanted to (made animation and film). Now trying to learn how to use recording and mixing equipment as well as some beat making. Patrick S. is a ham [ham radio fan] and loves the sound of noise on the bands with voices fading in and out. and morse code.


Lizzie P. is based in Washington DC, host and producer of the Smithsonian's Sidedoor podcast.
Loves the sound of sticking a hand in coffee beans, that hollow crackling noise.


Ian F. in Pittsburgh, is an organizer curator of Sound Scene. Crunchy leaves under foot is a winning sound for him.


Barry S. - is a sound artist, musician, field recordist, sound hacker and installation artist. The sound that he likes: leaves -- specifically the scraping and rustling of leaves that sort of sounds like little crabs scurrying.




Audio of the evening
Barry got the night going with “something related to a daxophone” which very few people know to begin with – the instrument includes sheets of metal, piezo microphones and other cool things like metal bars, bouncy objects like springy door stops and a contemporary shaped piece of wood – for which the instrument is named (photo attached). It's generally a bowed instrument. He gave us a live performance.
Alberto asked if we ever heard of the apprehension engine (https://apprehensionengine.squarespace.com/)
Lizzie- noted that her whole environment transformed...into a horror movie? What does the instrument sound like without the reverb?
And we got a second demo!
Ian pointed out that the instrument gives a similar feeling to prepared piano. Bowing strings for example.


Quote of the night: “amazing how many things you can bow” a metal bookshelf, a fence, a lot of things will resonate.
Jocelyn said in some ways it reminded her about a performance of a woman who played the Brooklyn Bridge (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U02X8UWgxY)


Ben shared an ambient sound recording taken under the SF bridge in the warming hut. It was a foggy day and he was struck by the fog horns and how the notes danced together. Ben shared a binaural recording....to explore the seemingly accidental harmonies. He went back to a keyboard to figure out the intervals (and he gave us a keyboard/melodica demo) and realized the horns call back to an opening movement in opera.
Barry mentioned the film sound track for Eraserhead with it's melancholy ship's whistle evoking quite an emotion.
Alberto- talked about the artist who worked with geographic folds, involving (if I understand correctly) a speaker on the ground in an abandoned train station, and transmitted to another train station in Germany. That artist did an installation at the Kennedy Center, piping in fog horn sounds from SF (sometimes in real time). That led to a chat about nature and how it can create music including the much beloved wave organ which works with the tides (https://www.exploratorium.edu/visit/wave-organ)



Jocelyn and Lizzie: shared their KCRW 24 race submission. They talked about their backstory brainstorming adventures which felt like transforming into semi-pro private investigators and the fun involved with that (the piece went on to win 2nd place! Congrats Lizzie and Jocelyn!)

https://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/special-programming/radio-race-2021-winners


Ian shared his KCRW radio race story as well and explained a bit about how it transformed from a story of Emily Dickenson into quite a different tale.

The group remarked and applauded the use of home-gathered/performed musical sounds to support the scoring and the fantastic pacing and delivery of the story. And a lesson at the end!


Barry shared a video of a lithophone, a slice from a block of marble with contact mics and exciting sonic potential https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithophone.

That reminded Steve of the audio tour he made for the Getty in LA and when he invited a featured artist to play the walls of the museum to create the soundscape!
Made Lizzie think of the ringing rocks of Pennsylvania LINK: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/sonorous-stones-ringing-rocks-park


Ben talked about the David Byrne in Battery Park Manhattan installation

https://gothamist.com/arts-entertainment/david-byrne-plays-the-building


and David Vantigum- played buildings
https://www.newschool.edu/mannes/faculty/david-van-tieghem/


Steve shared audio with the hope for feedback on the series he helped produce called “Living Downstream” about Salton Sea in the Coachella Valley in California. Episode: “The Sea Next Door” https://www.npr.org/podcasts/655974992/living-downstream

As the night wrapped we offered some impressions about the character of the episode and if the behind the scenes workers were more or less audible/evident than the local voices that grounded the reporting and storytelling itself.


A great sonic evening was had by all. Looking forward to listening with you in December!

0 Comments

Vibrant Autumn

12/10/2021

0 Comments

 
We had a very vibrant autumn of delightful listening together.
Here are highlights from September!

Hope you will enjoy and join us for an evening of listening together soon! We meet via Zoom these days. Looking forward to our next gathering.

Highlights:

We got the night started with a sonic prompt and introductions: what is your favorite fall sound or sound that you look forward to hearing falling?

Henry: Leaves underfoot, and also dodging them

Lizzie: Crunching leaves and also getting boots under the leaves and swishing them all around

Sonia: Hooked on leaves too, so many different colors of tree shedding, yellow, red, brown, tan. Enjoys stepping into certain parts where they are burying everything, and enjoying the visual of wet sloppy post-rainfall leaves (though they aren't as sonically satisfying).

Tanya: took the second half of the prompt and said...”the Republican party- unfortunately it doesn't seem to make a sound as it falls” (which is debatable ...though they lost the presidency, it doesn't seem to be falling elsewhere...anyway we aren't about politics at the Lounge). She noted the way that sounds shift as it gets cooler and drier compared to the sounds of humid summers. And commented on how, since moving to a more rural place, the few human sounds around her are more noticeable.

Jocelyn: The sound she thought of was of apples falling from trees and their full thuddy sound on the earth or over cement, which is a little sad and not soo satisfying but sometimes stepping onto really small fallen crab apples over cement can be somewhat satisfying (maybe more texturally than sonically). And that made her wonder if stepping on the pods from gingko trees would be more satisfying if they didn't smell like vomit.

Sound:

Henry: shared audio involving a spoken word and soundscape.
reflections
Sonia: soundtrack was so cool it distracted me (like White Lotus)
Jocelyn: beautiful textures in that refreshing scoring (refreshing break from the overused music from podcast music library scoring). Might enjoy the voicing more as a story than enunciated poetry – though loved the very sparse leaning on the “wee, eees, eees” (which can be tiring if overused but because it was sparse it really worked) and use of silence throughout.
Tanya: Schoenberg's Sprechstimme style, might be interesting to play with to play with the gestural phrasing https://www.britannica.com/art/Sprechstimme
Henry: Lou Reed might be a contemporary version of sprechstimme. Snake eating its tail was symbolic of the rebirth he was conveying. Orouboros https://soundcloud.com/henry-lowman/ableton-orouboros. Shared tracks from King Crimson with added piano and percussion.

Tanya: Being in the music industry as a woman and dealing with unwanted commentary, implied, things said and not said and sometimes outright harassment...sometimes it feels like a constant wash that we (women and female identified folks) learn to ignore but that we shouldn't have to. In a recent exchange with a person in a position of power to promote her work serious professional boundaries were pushed into harassment
from behind a veil of “collaboration.” Among the many inappropriately titled working tracks she took one called Flute Flaunt https://soundcloud.com/tantroniq/flute-flaunt-source/s-6lkuKEWfexn
Tanya created Grow Up
https://soundcloud.com/tantroniq/grow-up-v1/s-3HhcGBHc6ic
use of public domain https://vimeo.com/384796494


Quote of the evening: “It's not hard to not be an ass”

Jocelyn wrapped up the night with audio from a recent Solvable episode about consumerism and faith organizations. She gave a shout out to the old fun moments of public radio production that used to be shared at Listening Lounges in the past: the audio left on the cutting room floor. From time to time that audio can find an easier resting place at the end of a podcast. This little snippet was a joy to publish.

Looking forward to next month!


0 Comments

    DCLL

    DC Listening Lounge is a terrific audio collective. Browse our blog and archives to get a sense of all the fun we get up to. You're also invited to join our Facebook Group page to get in on the conversation.

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    April 2022
    March 2022
    December 2021
    August 2021
    May 2021
    February 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    October 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    November 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    September 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    November 2012
    August 2012
    May 2012
    November 2011

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.