Breath, noise and organ.

Quiet actions, ecstatic responses.

Edited beginnings of field-recorded song sketches made over a couple of days in central Cambridge. Isolating breath and wind, and other environmental sounds, before melody and rhythm get involved. Researching intent of noise.

Ecstasy of autophony, which is the virtual amniotic fluid in which I have songs, is approximated in a simple organ melody derived from various tonal sources, including road traffic and songbirds. PaulStretch edit of pre-song sounds for textural grounding. Arpeggiated VST synth derived from MIDI underscores the iterative nature of song sketching - switching a recorder on and off; taking a breath before humming or singing; proximate sounds preceding the song idea.

Music listening context: Joseph Haydn, Symphony No. 45 in F-sharp minor; operatic works by US composer Robert Ashley; UK poet Holly Pester's noise / breath audio compositions.

Note:

Realising little ecstasies of self-sounding, I materialise the invisible impossible.

Origins of a song, or Song, may be demonstrated by artists *doing*, whether by being figured recording audio or writing words. Song origins are often said to be inspired by a particular place, or by a memorable song / performance.

I've always experienced songs as physical objects forming within me, and when I make a song it's prompted by proximate sounds with which I vibrate, and which tune me into timbral and melodical memories of particular sounds and songs. A very effective archival retrieval mechanism. Oftentimes the proximate sound is an immediately clear but imperfect, memorised artifactual playback / self-performance of a song that I have responded strongly to emotionally.

The physical objects that I make are successful for me when they match the spatiality / feeling of the object as experienced. For me, intent of making is activation and realisation of embodied responses. Ecstatic autophony. Spontaneous virtuosity, like an animal's.

This is not as poetic as saying I'm inspired by a wondrous place, and it doesn't show off my keen knowledge of music which I apply intentionally before the fact. I am full of intent, just not the kind that is easily written about or easily understood.

My research brings us a little bit closer to the truth of the origins of song.

Image: edited image found a long time ago, source forgotten.