(Sharbaugh)
Michael Ash Sharbaugh [ https://soundcloud.com/michael-ash-sharbaugh ]: guitar, synthesizers, and 'found sound[s]'
Composed and Recorded ca. June 18 to 21, 2015.
sm7 [ARIA (D)].
Upon receiving this week’s Disquiet Junto assignment—“imagine your favorite instrument is dreaming while it sleeps — what does it sound like?” I instinctively thought of yawning, and imagined to which tone that would equate in electronic instruments. In Indo-Iranian languages, such as Sanskrit, the vocalization, “a-o-m,” or ‘om,’ would be the natural sound that comes from the throat and mouth upon its opening and closing—with voicing, of course.
Accordingly, I made the base tone of my composition to note, C3, as it seems to be the central key upon which samples and subsequent synthesis are built—and the note which my keyboards and synthesizers would ‘utter’ were they to yawn with their fictitious ‘mouths.’
I widened my perception of what an “instrument” can be: rather than focusing on one discrete sound-making unit in my studio, I envisioned the entire studio as my ‘instrument,’ and, thus, utilized it to its fullest in composing this piece. I played and recorded nearly each instrument I own at the predetermined C3 note and built a composition [in the key of C harmonic minor] upon that. I usually weave found sounds into my compositions, so I included a submarine’s sonar ping [http://www.soundsnap.com/submarine_sonar_ping_military_single_military_blastwavefx_09678] to accentuate the piano and percolating synth parts in the background.
I named the piece after my studio—Intro/Ergo, and added the present tense Latin verb, 'sum,' to reflect my studio's state of 'beingness,' as it is to be represented in this piece.
[As of June 21, 2015, I have added additional instrumentation to this piece—guitar.]
More on this 181st Disquiet Junto project (“Imagine your favorite instrument is dreaming while it sleeps — what does it sound like?”) at:
http://disquiet.com/2015/06/18/disquiet0181-instrumentaldream/
More on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://disquiet.com/junto/
Join the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/
Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:
http://disquiet.com/forums/
