So, all these people making vst plugins, it seems they do it first so that they can get some sound or another from inside their head out into the world, or lacking that they try to just see how badly they can fuck with it, mangle it, stretch it, scratch it, chebyshev it, stomp it, or otherwise apply some arcane equation to hear what happens themselves and if it is anything interesting or they actually get the sound they hear in their heads out into the world, then the coolest of them release them unto the world with it sometimes becoming a business, and there are some amazing plugins that are worth parting with a few bucks, but mostly I suspect its about the sound.
So I have been listening a little to the music of plugin or bidule writers to hear what they are doing with their own inventions. Let me start with Jerry Smith, who makes what are called “groups” for plogue bidule. These are like plugins, but because they remain within bidule they don’t crash, which is a lovely thing. Not that crashes aren’t sometimes lovely. Sometimes. Jerry and his wife Sonsherée Giles collaborate on multimedia performances. Sonsherée is a dancer and Jerry does sound installations/music for her performances. I don’t know anything about dance but enjoyed the pieces, but I’ll keep the details of what I enjoyed to myself so as to cover up for some of said ignorance. The soundscapes/music are textural, you can practically feel them (tactilely rather than emotionally is what I mean here). David Toop, in writing about the experimental music scene in one of his books (either Haunted Weather or Oceans of Sound can’t remember which, but they are both great) , talks about how musicians are playing with very short and long times, and exploring very quiet sounds. The quiet sounds are the stuff of the textures here, and one of Toop’s points is that it makes people listen if not more attentively then closer. I have not been through the whole site yet, but a good example of this is the first piece, “opening” for the dance piece performed by Sonsherée, Music for
One Breath is an Ocean for a Wooden Heart. While this piece is entirely texture without notes, when the notes do come they are sparse and placed carefully. No pyrotechnics here, something much better. Consider “theme 3: Collapse” or “Sad Ending” for examples.
Jerry, who travels under the moniker jersmi on the plogue bidule forums, helped me out on the one group I’ve worked on, called the rhythmecho, and has provided a bunch more help to anyone trying to figure out the workings of bidule. To hear an example of one of his groups, called J-BGran-X, a granulator if you know what that is, along with the rhythmecho and several others (all referred to in the title somehow or another…no time to unpack the whole thing now) check out my newest, awkwardly named crackly kerrstinn granulated double lama (fixed corrupted file. 8/6).
Gotta run to the airport, so that’s it for now.