Tag Archives: Audio

Mt. Washington Pt. 1: Going Up the Mountain

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I’m back home from the Mt. Washington shoot where I was so busy I never posted any updates. So I’ll be posting news of the trip many days late.

Here's all of my audio gear packed up and ready to go.

January 9: We all gathered at Jackie’s house, threw our gear in the van and drove to New Hampshire. Jacqueline Goss was the leader of the crew: video artist, writer, director, producer. Jesse Cain: cinematographer. Dani Leventhal: talent. (She hates that word, but after spending the better part of a week together I think it fits just fine.) We spent the first night enjoying the comforts of the Appalachian Mountain Club Joe Dodge Lodge. Jesse unpacked and assembled the camera so we could begin shooting first thing in the morning.

Jessie and Dani checking out the focal length on the 135mm lens

January 10: First thing in the morning we met our ride up the mountain (snow tractor!) at the Auto Road and took a minute to shoot a few establishing shots.

Mt. Washington (the summit is obscured here--it's just behind the peak on the right)

On the way to the summit we stopped just above the treeline to shoot a few more scenes. I loved seeing the stunted krumholtz trees that are just visible in the lower left corner of this photo.

Jackie and Jesse on the Auto Road

Late morning, we arrived at the summit and quickly unloaded our equipment. Visibility was good, and since we didn’t know whether we’d get clear skies again Jackie and Jesse and Dani peeled off to shoot some scenes that didn’t require sync sound while I took a look around the observatory and organized our gear.

Summit Weather:

  • High temp: 1 F
  • Low temp: -5 F
  • Average Wind Speed: 45 mph gusting to 62 mph

Here’s an excerpt from the first day of recording; a scene where Dani knocks the rime ice off a sign. These sounds are indicative of winter weather on the mountain: wind envelopes everything, so even rather violent actions produce only faint tinkles of ice.

[audio:knocking_rime_off_sign.mp3]

knocking_rime_off_sign.mp3

More Wichita Mind Control

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Jason Cosco was kind enough to post a video of me performing Wichita Mind Control for bent electronics with MaxMSP at the Upstate Artist’s Guild Gallery last April. This was the premiere performance of the piece. Though my pieces often changes incrementally (or sometimes substantially) as I continue to perform them, this first shot at WMC still feels definitive to me.

Here’s audio of the same performance (previously posted here)

[audio:wichita_mind_control_estate_capital.mp3]

Wichita Mind Control – Estate Capital

Tax Refund

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Here’s your tax refund from The Field Guide: two new recordings from my recent Albany Sonic Arts Collective performance at the Upstate Artists Guild. See photos from the show here.

The first piece features an in-progress version of my Fender Telecaster morphing into an electric 6-string banjo. I replaced the lowest string on the Tele with another high string to serve as a drone. Soon to come are railroad spikes so I can change the pitch of the drone string more easily and my usual allotment of sensors added to the instrument. This piece is played in a traditional thumb lead two-finger style using a modified mountain-minor tuning (dG’DGcd) run through a loopy MSP patch.

[audio:spring_dissent_bubbling.mp3]

Spring Dissent (Bubbling)

The second piece is a modified version of a work for banjo and electronics with the banjo replaced by my Base On, a circuit-bent walkie-talkie. Not much of the circuit-bent sound is heard, though, since it drives an elaborate resynthesis process in MSP that simultaneously retunes the pitches to just-intonation and smears the transitions with glissandi. A touch of feedback in the process opens up slightly unstable areas where the algorithm fights with itself to settle on a consistent pitch.

[audio:wichita_mind_control_estate_capital.mp3]

Wichita Mind Control – Estate Capital

Dipping a Toe in the River

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Ray Hare (photo by Chris Bassett)

Ray Hare swims in the River (photo by Chris Bassett)

Here are some excerpts from ASACs recent River of Drone marathon. I grabbed snippets at random from the recordings I made and appended them into a single, condensed track. These excerpts were from noon to 3pm and 8pm to 11pm in case you’re keeping score.

[audio:river_of_drone_excerpts.mp3]

River of Drone excerpts

Also, Mark Lunt has posted some captivating photos from the event here.

One 4 One on 8/4/8

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I’ve just added a new album on amiestreet.com. One 4 One is a live recording of interactive electronic music from a performance at the Impulse/Response series in Troy, NY. The title of the album is a play on the direct, one-to-one relationships between performer and computer that I was deliberately avoiding. Plus, the performance took place on January 4, 2001, hence the title. Every 390 days since (give or take) I’ve been meaning to do something with the recordings. Luckily I got around to it before 2013. (Drop me a line if you figure that one out and I’ll send you a special little something.

Check it out on amiestreet, or listen to the tracks below.

Albany Sonic Arts: 4 Solo Sets for April

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I never posted a proper announcement for last weekend’s Albany Sonic Arts Collective show at the Upstate Artists Guild Gallery featuring Ray Hare, myself, Eric Hardiman and Travis Johns. Here are recordings of the pieces I played.

[audio:http://hollandhopson.com/music/asac/02_hopson_turnover.mp3]

Turnover – I improvised the melody and lyrics for this one inspired by Ray Hare’s hair raising performance.

[audio:http://hollandhopson.com/music/asac/03_hopson_my_own_true_love.mp3]

My Own True Love – an arrangement of a traditional tune

[audio:http://hollandhopson.com/music/asac/04_hopson_telephone_temple.mp3]

Telephone Temple – an arrangement of a piece I wrote to be performed with LEMUR‘s musical robots.

Visit the UAG site to view photos from the event.

Nine Tas

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I recently heard a recording of the premiere performance of Nine Tas by the Austin New Music Co-op and thought I’d share it here. The singers are Ashley Gaar, Kathy Hatch, Wendi Olinger and Brandon Young

[audio:http://www.hollandhopson.com/music/various/nine_tas.mp3]

Nine Tas

The rest of the concert is knockout good. Let’s hope the Co-op makes it available soon.

Gates Ensemble on Austinnitus Audio Series

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I’ve posted previously about Josh Ronsen’s newly launched Austinnitus Audio Series. He’s recently added some great new audio including sounds from Alex Keller, Doug Ferguson, Thomas Fang and an incarnation of E.C.F.A sans myself. I’m particularly fond of the Gates Ensemble recording from a 2003 appearance at the Church of the Friendly Ghost that’s now online. Listen to it below.

[audio:http://ronsen.org/austinnitus/audio/GatesEnsemble_ChurchOfTheFriendlyGhost2003.mp3]

A.I.N.T. it Sweet

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Josh Ronsen has launched the Austinnitus Audio Series to showcase artists featured on the Austinnitus list. There are already plenty of good recordings to check out and Josh continues to add more. I’ve especially enjoy hearing documentation of some one-off performances, otherwise lost to the ether, such as A.I.N.T. #4. A.I.N.T. stands for Austinnitus Improv NighT, as good an excuse as any for Josh to create ad-hoc ensembles and let them loose on the world. The fourth (and final?) of this short-lived series featured Sharon Crutcher (vocals), David DeMaris (keyboards, trumpet), Holland Hopson (saxophone, banjo, electronics), Genevieve Walsh (flute), Brandon Young (vocals).

[audio:http://ronsen.org/austinnitus/audio/aint4-1.mp3]
Part 1

[audio:http://ronsen.org/austinnitus/audio/aint4-2.mp3]
Part 2

[audio:http://ronsen.org/austinnitus/audio/aint4-3.mp3]
Part 3

[audio:http://ronsen.org/austinnitus/audio/aint4-4.mp3]
Part 4

[audio:http://ronsen.org/austinnitus/audio/aint4-5.mp3]
Part 5