sound + process: a lines podcast (special dispatch from c-base)

[stripes]

thanks everyone so much for the overwhelming support it really is so encouraging and rewarding to know that i can be an inspiration within a peer group that i am so inspired by. i can’t wait to share this new album with yall when i get back from tour and can fully focus on that!

[wednesdayayay]

so excited to hear it my wife and I will be listening to this episode while hurricane irma flys around us

[abalone]

great discussion, fantastic work
@dani_derks you ask great questions, and make it great
@stripes totally dig your ideas on production and performance, thanks for sharing
cool sounds!

[ghost]

Very much looking forward to that album. Thanks for sharing your journey with us and thanks to @dani_derks too.

[dani_derks]

I’m so glad folks are digging this episode as much as I do. I don’t think that it’s any coincidence that in just 5 days, this one passed the 1k mark. There is something calming about the way Emily works, far beyond just the quality of the music she creates. Occasionally, I get caught in these periods of panic re: creation and art making – it’s related to what @tehn once described: “the opportunity to know more just leads to more of the unknown. it can become an overwhelming and noisy feedback loop.” Working on this episode, hearing the way that @stripes walks that tightrope, was incredibly healing.

The way she approaches these tools is honest and respectful…she doesn’t use them as a means to an end (visibility, ownership, recognition, etc). Throughout this episode, it’s clear that she releases music as a knee-jerk reaction to her own awe of what the modules reveal to her – if something grabs her the right way, it will likely grab others as well and therefore it deserves to be shared so that it may continue its life and impact others as it has impacted her.

Just wanted to share some post-release thoughts to invite any specific reflections y’all might have.

[dani_derks]

https://soundcloud.com/sound-and-process/karl-fousek-sound-process-9

Super excited to finally share episode 9 with Karl Fousek (@analogue01)!

For those who don’t know, Karl is an accomplished improviser who’s spent the last five years crafting an incredible archive of live modular performances and studio albums. As a deeply devoted fan of experimental and electronic music and by dedicating himself to the mastery of his tools as a single instrument, Karl has developed a compositional agility which helps him explore new directions of form. His latest release, ‘Two Pieces For a Contemporary Connection’, is an inspiring hybrid of live improvisations and rehearsal recordings.

Beyond his work as a solo synthesist, Fousek also plays with Devon Hansen and Roger Tellier-Craig — a partnership which bore the very well-received ‘No Sound Without A Misunderstanding’ and most recently, ‘No Image In Particular’.

Through our conversation, Karl covers everything from his approaches to longform performances, building patches that are mutable yet structured, learning a modular system as an instrument, collaborating with others, and how he navigates uncanny sounds.

I’m really looking forward to what his reflections spark for y’all

[ghost]

Wonderful episode. I really enjoyed hearing about Karl’s approach and reflections on using Eurorack as an instrument. Loved the music featured and I’ll be working through his back catalogue for sure. Thanks @dani_derks and @analogue01 for the inspirational listen.

[skiphunt]

Enjoyed this one, and really dig this cat’s sound work. So glad I discovered this podcast and site. I know very little about modular stuff, but these excellent podcasts and interesting composers have me intrigued enough to learn more.

Thanks!

[yoyosandshoes]

Another great insight thank you. I’ve enjoyed these a lot

[josephbranciforte]

@dani_derks have been absolutely loving going back and listening to these podcasts over the last few days. thank you for making something so thoughtful and informative, we need more conversations like this!

[analogue01]

Just wanted to pop in and say a huge thanks to everyone who’s listened to the episode so far and an even huger thanks to Dan for all the incredible work on the podcast in general. Cheers all

[glia]

now’s as good a time as any to chime in and thank you too (plus @dani_derks obv)…great to get in your head and I was surprised by quite a bit more of your thinking and motives than I expected:

• felt kinship with your aversion to keyboard and guitar based improve thru fx…I love the resulting music but it isn’t MY way of working

• i’d heard you discuss approaching the synth as an instrument but had no prior insight into how deeply your public practice affected your musical choices . the tremendous respect i have for your work only increased realizing what went into the pieces’ conception

this has me looking at my own synth with new eyes . the description of constantly “tuning”, honing in on moments, nudging em off balance into new sonic territory…I loved that

[dani_derks]

@glia

honing in on moments, nudging em off balance into new sonic territory

this this this. immediately framed what I want to work toward with performances – striving for unity and creating points of divergence once unity has been found, again and again. it’s a simple goal that can be applied to any material. such a good core approach.

[analogue01]

@glia

I love the resulting music but it isn’t MY way of working

Yes, exactly. No offence intended to any other instruments/methods/practices that I may have accidentally dissed.

[analogue01]

I think this process is how most attentive group improvising tends to unfold. Modulars and other electronic systems are so interesting to me cause it’s almost an intrinsic part of playing them and composing for them.

[marcus_fischer]

There are no such things as accidents

[caelmore]

Another great episode.

[Angela]

Dan, I just love the way you speak (and interview).
Good stuff all around.

[dani_derks]

There’s something about @marcus_fischer ’s music that fits this season. Last year, a lot of you shared how the snowstorms you were homebound by formed the perfect backdrop for Marcus’s reflections. As another year closes, I am so excited to share another conversation with this wonderful artist. This isn’t something I expected, but Marcus has been really giving of his time and it was his suggestion to do a follow-up. In the spirit of the season, I’m very thankful to have gotten to know him better over the last year.

Since episode 5, Marcus has been for lack of a much better word, busy. He completed the Rauschenberg Residency and released the follow-up to 2010’s ‘Monocoastal’ — Loss, which is absolutely stunning. He established an experimental power trio with Paul Dickow and @wselman called Wild Card, which toured with High Plains at the end of this past summer. He’s been performing with Lisa Schonberg’s Secret Drum Band. He recorded another collaboration with 12k’s Taylor Deupree called Lowlands. And I’m sure I’m missing something.

This episode digs beyond his output as an artist to explore the internal processes that inform his approach, eatpecially as an improviser. The stuff @ 38 mins and onward is just gold.

As always, the music from each of these projects and partnerships weaves throughout the episode, which can all be purchased as digital or characteristically breathtaking physical objects on Bandcamp.

Grab a warm cup of tea and dive in.

[jacobino]

Yes yes and yes! Will carefully listen to it this afternoon. Thank you!