Under Pressure

To inform my own research and design, I went along Tuesday night to see a four hour non-stop improvised experimental music performance. One of the performers was non other than Phil who is taking us for this studio project.

I was interested to see him perform as he had already impressed me with his ability to pick up anything and make it musical and he'd shown us a few of his own experimental instruments so I was keen to see these in action.

Upon first entering the back room of The Wine Cellar, it was strange to walk in where it had already started. I'm not sure what I was expecting but it was almost unnatural to listen to at first, perhaps due to the fact that we are conditioned into a type and misconception about what music 'should' sound like. But I found that as I relaxed into the deep couches and absorbed the atmospheric lighting and space, the sounds just started to sound right. Even without communication, the three performers always seemed to thinking in tandem and creating something as though composed, at times almost like a conversation between the instruments. Imperceptible transitions changed the mood from tense, to calm, to suspenseful, to even comical at times. We found ourselves commenting on what the mood reminded us of, from chase scene, to horror movie, to walk in the park. It was a very ambient sound and I found myself absorbing it in almost a trance and, in fact, the performers seemed to be in a trance and working intuitively. I didn't stay the full four hours but was sad to leave.

Back in the studio and my own construction, following some calculations I began to doubt the feasibility of my intended construction, in particular the metal coils. I decided to go ahead and try it out with minor modifications but following a class 'show and tell' session with Phil and James, they confirmed my doubts and helped me move in another direction. I have scrapped the coils and now going for a simple wooden shelf frame with different sized bottles on each shelf. This is in fitting with my concept as the marketing of Coca Cola has reached such a point that in any store which sells it, it takes up a larger shelf presence in it's range of sizes and flavours so that it engulfs the potential consumers vision. They are forced to confront it, increasing the chance they will purchase it while adding to brand awareness and familiarity.

In terms of construction, I have my materials purchased, holes drilled in the shelves for the bottles to sit in, held in by the caps ( to reduce dampening of the sound) and the valves have been inserted into the caps. Armed with an air compressor, I began experimenting with pressurizing the bottles. Most of my joins held and I was very pleasantly surprised at the sound given off which sounded nothing like a plastic bottle. It was more of a 'ping' sound which resonated loudly even when I simply struck it with my nails so once constructed, it will be a matter of experimenting with different beaters. I managed to get a range of tones across the same sized bottles but until my support structure is completed, it is difficult to experiment with tone variation across the different sizes, but at least I know that it will work and it will be simply a matter of fine tuning.