stopGOstop: field recordings, sound collage, and sound art

A new composition for watching the snow melt, or watching the ice float on the Lake, or to calm the mind as it awaits the future. Always remember, composer Milton Feldman worked at his family’s business (manufacturing children’s coats) until he was forty-four, so work tomorrow isn’t going to be that bad. This piece is the second in a series of works inspired by walking/biking around Evanston, IL; featuring computerized Tuba, Contrabass, Timpani, and a number of other semi-symphonic and sinewave instruments.

Lime Disease, Concussions, the Anthropocene and Sunn O))), with a number of synthesizers. A new sound collage about the brain, body, and environment.

After an unintended 5 month hiatus, the stopGOstop podcast is back with episode 159. Evanston or Midwest in Midwinter or I don’t understand Mark Rothko is a 14-minute composition featuring field recordings of walking in the snow, a brass quintet, sine waves, and a positive attitude.

Episode 158 of the podcast features four field recordings from a weekend out and about (August 21 and 22, 2021).

On Saturday, I rode my bike downtown to record outside the Phillies v Padres baseball game. Then, while I was downtown, I walked through the outdoor restaurants/bars in the Gaslamp Quarter. On Sunday, while on the way back from lunch (we are installing a new show at the museum, better to work than worry) I recorded a Brazilian drumline practicing near the World Beat Center, then recorded walking through vendors the Plaza de Balbo.

The recordings are collaged slightly.

I have been thinking a bit about electronic voice phenomenon (EVP), clairvoyance, and ways of hearing outside of the normal lately. This is partially influenced by the book Thought-Forms by Annie Besant and C.W. Leadbeater, written in 1901. In short, the book explores the visual manifestations of thoughts and the notion that they exist as objects. In parallel to these occult practices, I have been thinking about outer space (again). Specifically, on the ISS, there is no silence but a constant hum of fans and motors.

So I set up four fans, turned my radio between stations, and recorded for about a half-hour. Out of that recording I created episode 157 and other forms is in between– one part artificial hum of spacecraft, one part thought made into sound (with lots of EQ and just a touch of reverb)

A binaural recording of a walk from the San Diego County Admin Building to my apartment in Golden Hill. The recording is about an hour.

Can we revisit our past and change it?  Jerome wakes up in Omaha, thinking about Jaws, and the summer of 2003. Then, a reporter recounts her experience at an anti-war protest, followed by Jerome talking a bit about the Utah Jazz, Lebron James, and how to make a proper scrambled egg.

Summertime features the voice talents of Anna Clark, Brian Taylor, and John Wanzel. The program is written, composed, and produced by John Wanzel.

A walk in the park, slow notes on a pipe organ, an occasional drumroll, and a plane overhead. Episode 155 is a respite between ISW episodes 5 and 6. Tune in next week for the final episode of the Idaho Street Workshop, Summertime.

Where do history and memory intersect?  Episode five features long sections of fan-fiction involving Ann Rutledge and Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, as well as more information about the end of the relationship between Jerome and Regina..

Honest features the voice talents of Anna Clark, Brian Taylor, and John Wanzel. The program is written, composed, and produced by John Wanzel.

A walk on the beach, a slow evolving melody, and computer-generated instruments. Episode 154 is an interlude between ISW episodes 4 and 5. As part of its inaugural season of the Idaho Street Workshop, the stopGOstop podcast is releasing parallel projects for each episode.