(Sharbaugh)
Michael Ash Sharbaugh [ https://soundcloud.com/michael-ash-sharbaugh ]: guitar, synthesizers, and 'found sounds'
Composed and Recorded April 7 to 19, 2014.
sm6 [ARIA(A)].
This piece was initially inspired by a disquiet junto [https://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/] assignment [http://disquiet.com/2014/04/03/disquiet0118-internetroomtone/] that called for participants to create a work that “answer[s]” the question “What is the room tone of the Internet?” It was assigned for the span of April 4th through 7th, 2014, and I honestly had difficulty answering the question in sound. The sheer thought of such an undertaking—both conceptually and aesthetically—boggled my mind. Thus, I did not put forth my rough sonic draft.
However, in the spirit of the disquiet junto, and because this piece was sparked by its prompt, I hereby offer forth my process.
I imported a heavily effected sample of a 56k dial-up modem into my DAW, cut it down to a small section, time-expanded it, and looped it to meet 103.52 BPM—a tempo that was its closest match. I then added synth flourishes that seemed to match its resultant periodic tonic. Intuitional aesthetics guided me in adding additional motifs in the bass and treble registers. An old, out-of-tune, dirty, nylon-stringed acoustic guitar was added at the end, intentionally spaced to seem as if wandering.
I arrived upon the title having ‘learned’ that the internet moves along at .6 to .7 the speed of light: the average is .65; the speed of light is ‘c’.
More on this 118th Disquiet Junto project — “What is the room tone of the Internet?” — at:
http://disquiet.com/2014/04/03/disquiet0118-internetroomtone/
More on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://disquiet.com/?p=16588
Join the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/
Image associated with this Junto project used via a Creative Commons license:
https://flic.kr/p/2af9A
