sound culture has begun a process of reflecting the permanent flux of the late 90s. the ability sound has to morph and mutate at the pace of technological and cultural evolution, is reflective in the discoveries made through explorations into new social or technological tools, or, by subterfuge, in the findings of artists.
Soundsite is managed by System X, a communications and cultural server in Sydney, Australia. One of the first cultural servers established in Australia, System X, run by artists / technicians Scot McPhee and Jason Gee, is a fascinating resource in its own right. Their sound theory pages are renown internationally for providing thoughtful and innovative insights into many different aspects of sound culture. Soundsite includes the online archives of sound culture journal, Contemporary Sound Arts (CSA). The links pages <http://sysx.apana.org.au/soundsite/links.html> are regularly updated and provide an excellent jumpstation into related resources.
SWITCH is a cultural journal investigating many different aspects of art and culture. In 1997 they produced a special edition looking at the theory of sound. The online archive of the edition of the journal includes interviews with musicians and sound producers, some exhaustive essays into the relationship between technology and sound, and discussion on the role of sound within society.
The London Musicians Club website is a compelling resource for anyone interested in experimental music and sound art. The"texts" section has a collection of interesting writing, ranging from interviews with composers and musicians, to cut up texts about sound art.
pfe (permanent fatal error) is the project of New Zealand writer Caleb K., now based in Sydney, Australia. pfe is a series of meditations on sound performances and recordings of primarily New Zealand and Australian musicians and artists. It is published as an email digest approximately fortnightly, and archived online.
lowercase-sound is a forum for the discussion of music, sound art, environmental recordings and performances, characterised by low volume and/or minimal content. The mailing list, established in March 1999, is a vibrant forum, featuring dialogue on and by artists and composers as diverse as, PanSonic, Alvin Lucier and Bernhard Gunter. Postings related to approaches and techniques, recording reviews, personal listening experiences, and related announcements, are encouraged. Instructions regarding subscription to the mailing list, plus the online archive of he list are available from the above URL.
Online Articles, Journals and Newsletters
This resource page collects together a series of vital links to texts, essays and theses relating to sound practices.
+ .................+
In Adelaide, Australia a quiet revolution is taking place. Over the past two years a small but uncompromising group of sound artists and musicians have overcome the city's [sub]cultural inertia to produce some of the most uncompromising and enduring live performances the city's underground has seen. The problem is the city hasn't really seen these performances. The micro-scale of these events, exemplified by the mesm.eon performances staged by Matthew Thomas and dj zyzx, the fledgling a p h a. S ia event, and isolated live episodes such as those organised by Zonar Recordings to coincide with the Adelaide Festival, has rendered this tide of activity largely invisible.
Matthew Thomas emerged from his dual histories as a classically trained musician, and techno producer, to arrive at a practice of radical experimentation. Thomas' music increasingly embraces the sable hiss of noise and abstraction, creating alternatively harsh and delicate compositions. The sound works at his website are a collection of Real Audio pieces spanning the last two years of his practice, from his exploration of the architecture of Adelaide through sound (Architecture), to his investigation of the auditory qualities of the airwaves (re_modulation).
Employing a range of pre-coded tricks and an elegantly simple interface, pix.test.at, is the project of a programmer and reluctant artist from Adelaide, Pix. The website is a series of interactive pieces involving sound and image. Pix's recent emergence as a live performer has facilitated the formation of a variety of software-driven, and found-sound constructions. Collating found urban detritus into a low sonic dirge, Pix's sound pieces possess a real or illusory evolutionary quality.
The sonic experiments of the mesm.eon collective are primarily the result of collaborations between expatriate Adelaide sound manipulator, Nik Gaffney (aka dj zy'zx), and Adelaide based musician Matthew Thomas. mesm.eon is described as "a search for intellectual and emotional stimulation in unlikely sonic regions". The Real Audio files on their website, a combination of live documentation, and random sound creations, are textural audio works which explore the nature of subsonic atrophy.
Through exploration with Adelaide based ensemble, pbxo, and his own experimentation with sound, Jason Sweeney has quickly become one of the most interested audio artists in Australia. His work playfully and intelligently combines treble shocks, midi splinters and bass assaults, culminating in complex electronica of all gelatinous forms. His website features a number of interactive sound pieces using Real Audio, and often acts as jumpstation for his many live performances.
Some of the live sound escapades as described above, can be found archived at <http://www.radioqualia.va.com.au/live/archive.html>
