This week I was able to perform a first draft of my first piece, ‘xenu’. The piece included quotes about the cult of scientology, which I then attempted to relate to the soundscape.

Scientology is a dangerous cult which preys on the weak minded, offering them a better, happier life in exchange for vast quantities of mandatory ‘donations’ . The creator, L. Ron Hubble, was a science fiction novelist who has been quoted saying that the real way to make money is by starting your own religion. There are more ex-scientologists than confirmed members of the supposed religion, most of which have very negative experiences of their time in the church of scientology.

I used several techniques to represent my attitude towards, ‘The church of scientology’.

I automated a breakdown of pure tones with degrade and granulation. This represents the hidden darker potential of what originally presents itself as calm and trustworthy. Striking tones bounce around the soundscape in a disorienting way creating a sense of unpredictability in the piece.

I used ixiquarks to maipulate a recording of Tom Cruise so that it had a different tone. I stretched the words apart so that instead of, ‘You don’t know the history of psychology, I do’ , it sounds like, ‘You don ‘t know s**t’. This is intended as response to the original statement.

When I played my piece i noticed alot of things about the mix which were lacking. I felt that there wasn’t enough exploration of sounds, and certain ideas could be developed in more detail.

listen:

xenu

My myspace is finally up and running with my own work on it.

www.myspace.com/thenerveagent

Another useful class in terms of feedback and guidance on our pieces. My first piece is now well on the way to completion. ixiquarks proving to be a useful tool!

On Friday I attended a lunchtime concert in the Mumford theatre, where the bafflingly dexterous Nick Collins performed an impressive set on solo piano and laptop. In one of his own pieces, ‘Detune’, he used diffusion programmed through Supercollider to move detuned sounds across an 8 speaker set-up. It was very effective and the techniques used have shone some light on uwehbd