Persistent Disequilibrium is based on a set of new musical instruments where finger mounted piezo pickups are used with transducers on vibrating plate-like objects to explore resonances by touch. This creates a feedback loop where sonic vibrations pass through the material to be investigated and are not transmitted through the air. The direct contact let us come very close to the vibrating objects, and the low frequency rumble inherent in the objects is teased out and amplified in the feedback loop, creating haunting resonances and deep vibrating spaces. Various vibrating materials have been explored, such as metals, plastics, wood, ceramics, concrete, glass, bioplastics, even human bones in a living body. Closed loops of the audio feedback circuit resonate by amplifying background noise, singing on frequencies determined by the vibrational modes of the objects the sound is passing through. Contact microphones are attached to bones in the performer’s hand, enabling an embodied and direct interaction with the feedback loop. Including the body parts of the performer in the feedback circuit creates a new method of embodied sound production and allows an intimate performative control over the expressive nuances of the performative environment instigated by closely spaced vibrational modes of the instrument. The performer’s finger acts as a filter in the feedback circuit, and variations in performative gestures (pressure, angle, touching with the nail or the flesh) can thus selectively bring out different potential resonances of the object.


Album cover, photo by Jeremy Welsh, cover design by Miguel Carvalhais

Release page at Crónica

Thanks to Miguel Carvalhais at Cronica, to Jeremy Welsh for cover photo and video canvases, to Maja S.K. Ratkje for listening, and to Apichaya Wanthiang, Tijs Ham, Trond Lossius and Jeremy Welsh for participation in the process of developing the instruments.

Tags: music, release, selected

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