False Starts & Fragments #1

Between intention and accident – the act of making

This series will be a “behind the scenes” look at what I’m working on, an exploration of process and creative drift. I often find that once I’ve completed a project I need to shift to an entirely different medium, so who knows where this will go…

Several years ago I bought an Akai 4000DB “reel to reel” tape recorder, introduced in the early 1970s, it was a popular machine known for its robust build and high-fidelity sound. The machine itself was in excellent condition given it’s age and had been used by the current owner to record live drums. He was trying to warm up his drum sound but wasn’t getting the results he wanted.

When I purchased the unit he gave me a box of old tapes that his Grandfather had used in the 70s, it included pages of hand written notes about locations, show names, all sorts of potentially fascinating recordings. I put them into storage and never really revisited them until last week.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the process behind my recently released EP Echoes from Isolation – basically it was made from a combination of field recordings and late night jam sessions that I made during the covid lockdown in 2020. At the time I was just experimenting with different equipment and effects, nothing felt connected, and I had no intention of arranging them into finished tracks. But when I rediscovered them five years later, it quickly turned into a six track EP.

Sometimes the muse speaks when you least expect it.

I remember reading about the recording process behind the debut How to Destroy Angels album – they had recorded all kinds of random sounds and loops and created a “sound pool” that they would go to when arranging tracks, this idea always appealed to me but I never explored it any further.

Echoes from Isolation was assembled in a similar way, it was like piecing together a puzzle, finding sounds that complimented each other and then filling in the blanks if I felt they needed any extra instrumentation.

As I thought about what my next project would be I remembered the tapes I had in storage. I’ve enjoyed working with field recordings, so it seemed like listening through the old tapes could be an interesting starting point.

The hand written notes listed a variety of sources, everything from old Radio New Zealand broadcasts to the original owners field recordings made around Wellington and Auckland. These included recordings from train stations, airports, and city streets.

He would introduce some of the locations he was recording (unfortunately he didn’t give any dates!) so I became familiar with his voice. This meant I could recognise him in conversations across tapes and piece together small fragments of his life. He made some fascinating radio recordings including a documentary about Musique concrète and how to manipulate tape to create experimental sound. Perhaps this is what his field recordings were intended for.

There were some very nostalgic recordings across the tapes, and I will share the digitised sounds as I sort through them. If you would like to use them in your own work – please do! I would love to hear anything you make and would be happy to share it.

I’ve setup a SoundCloud account to collect all the audio I talk about here at A Signal in the Static, so if you are on that network, give it a follow!