Le chant de la machine

2020 - Electronic soundscape
Composed on eigth speakers

​

"The song of the machine" is the result of an exploration of the infinite limits of technology. I went in search of sound materials with, in all and for all, a recording of a few seconds of digital silence (understand I pressed "Record" when nothing was plugged in input, I went to look by the window, I came back and it was done).

Thanks to extreme settings, pushing the samplers, plug-ins to the limit and using the digital audio tools at my disposal against the current, sound escaped. I caught it as best I could, and there I did everything. All the tweaks I had never tried, all the tools I had never dared to thwart and all the mistakes I had always been afraid of. Three resonant filters, a dozen random re-injections and a few exaggerated transpositions later, I had aimed a bank of sounds.
And finally, in spite of the violence of certain gestures, in spite of the bloody fight between the machine and me, in spite of the blows of firedamp, in spite of the strokes, it almost came out of the velvet and the charm. After the storm passed, a kind of sweetness emerged. A disturbed electronic soundscape, sometimes erratic chase, sometimes contemplative face-to-face, could take shape.

It was interesting, through this work, to probe what the machine was capable of producing and to enter with it in this showdown. Does it have things to tell me when it no longer understands me? Can I make it lose control? What happens when I push it to her last entrenchments?

I didn't get a clear answer, it didn't speak.
But it almost sang.