April 27, 2017

8.30 pm: Yesterday, I saw two people, in and on my way to town, just moments after I’d thought about them. This is not an uncommon phenomenon, I’m given to understand. Today, I experienced a momentary, olfactory illusion. As on previous occasions, the scent was that of a woman’s perfume. With it came a feeling of extraordinary well being.

9.00 am: Studiology. The workforce on the scaffolding outside the studio window were making noises uncomfortably like a dental hygienist’s burnishing tool.  Since I couldn’t continue composition at the mixing desk under these conditions, I turned to ‘The Talking Bible’ sound system, and tested the MacBooks’ play and record functionality. (Better to discover a problem now than on the day.):

I’m conscious that the system is getting unwieldy. This is inevitable when the it has to live independently of any support currently provided by the studio’s equipment. Metaphorically, this ‘baby’ has to be viable outside the ‘womb’ on Monday. The fundamental structure of the system is straightforward: all the effectors are connected in series. It’s, rather, the accumulation of effectors that creates the complexity. For most of the morning I bounced between three MacBooks and an iMac, like a circus plate-spinner, processing sounds, files, and technical strategies.

At this stage of preparations, I turn my mind to what was uncomfortable, inadequate, redundant, and dysfunctional (myself included) the last time I conducted a 24-hour event. Most definitely, I need to take more warm clothes, a pair of carpet slippers (for the night watch), a kettle, some pot noodles, and additional  sugary things. The enterprise feels as though its a cross between readying for a marathon and a long-haul night flight. I remember my leg-stretching forays into the dark corridors of the Library outside the Drwm. There was at least one other person in the building, but I saw them only once:

With the digitisation of the first five books of the Bible (Torah) complete, I mixed down all the files, superimposing book upon book. Afterwards, I did the same with all the gospels, letters, and accounts making up the New Testament. The combined sound is evokes that of an enormous congregation of  glossolaliacs (tongues-speakers), combined with the drone of many murmured prayers.

By lunchtime, the whole system had been tested successfully:

2.00 pm: After lunch, I put the network of effectors through their paces using the recordings of the Revelation of St John the Divine as my source. A suitably dark and unsettling soundscape emerged. Mid afternoon, I interrogated the ergonomic of the main table. There was a little too much clutter due to inappropriate cable lengths.

7.30 pm: A grizzly evening attempting to respond to an on-line Module Evaluation Questionnaire that refused to save my input. Life is too short for this!

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