Solid Phase (2009) 7’36 (Fixed media - 8 channels) 

Solid Phase is composed around underwater hydrophone recordings made in the winter of 2008 on the canal systems around the West Midlands, United Kingdom. Interactions are heard between ageing canal boat hulls and the frozen water that surrounds them as they they rock on their moorings, influenced only by wind. Some of these interactions are subtle rubbing or scraping gestures, others are more vigorous collisions. 

Much of the sonic material remains unprocessed in terms of timbre and pitch. Therefore, compositional processes were very much driven by the surroundings and natural influences on the sounding materials. Even though very little processing was undertaken on the original recordings, much of the material maintains an acousmatic, abstract quality, as the sounds were sourced from an often unheard and unfamiliar source.

Solid Phase (2 channel reduction)

Décalage (2008) 6’32 (Fixed media - 8 channels)  

Décalage attempts to explore sonic interactions between organic and synthetically produced ‘real world’ materials. The piece is based around recordings of wood and metal in various states of interaction and motion. Unprocessed elements of the original recordings are evident in the arrangement, and are also used as the basis on which the rest of the sounds in the work are derived. 

At the heart of the piece lies a transformation, or shift. The organic gives way to the synthetic. The synthetic becomes acousmatic, and the natural slowly becomes unnatural as all reference to the original sound sources, and environmental cues, are stripped away. Familiar, brittle, erratic sounds, which are present at the beginning of the piece, mutate and give way to a darker, blurred and more vague audio world as the shift towards the synthetic takes place. The mutation from the ‘real’ to the acousmatic is further emphasised as the sounds develop from typical and ordinary to a more sinister, oppressive sound world.   

Décalage (2 channel reduction)

Flinch-Rest is one of the final pieces in my PhD portfolio. 
 
The piece is the result of exploring the compositional shapes and structures of acousmatic music and electronica and blending elements of these structuring processes inside a single composition.

Flinch-Rest

1st part of the Injection cycle which consists of:
1. Reload
2. Refract
3. Repeat

Reload

2nd part of the Injection cycle which consists of:
1. Reload
2. Refract
3. Repeat

Refract

3rd part of the Injection cycle which consists of:
1. Reload
2. Refract
3. Repeat

Repeat

This is a mix based on a DJ set performed at SOUNDkitchen's Sonic Picnic http://soundkitchenuk.org/events/past-events/sonicpicnic-2011.

This is the first of a number of mixes entitled 'Origins'. Each of these mixes will contain music that has strongly influenced my composition of electronic music and in some cases has enabled me to appreciate music in a new way. Origins #1 is a primarily European take on Detroit influenced techno. Whilst this was not the first music I explored as a teenager it is, perhaps, the most important and influential. The ethos and style of Techno can be traced back through much of the music that excites me and permeates much of my current compositional process and thinking.

Track listing:

1. Denis Smalley - Pentes 
2. Savvas Ysatis - Alright 
3. Rhythm & Sound - Smile 
4. Surgeon - Atol 
5. Gez Varley - Zippy 
6. A.Mochi - Black Out 
7. Autechre - Gantz Graf 
8. Dessben - Comida Rapida 
9. Ancient Methods - First Method AM-1 A2 
10. The Black Dog - Worship The Drum 
11. Surgeon - RADIANCE 
12. Animatek - Petrol Party 
13. Gez Varley - Zeno 
14. Steve Stoll - Early Reflections 
15. Lomov - Kind Of Pale 
16. Anders Ilar - Playing With The Winds 
17. Iain Armstrong - Dirty Grooves

Origins #1 - Detroit

The Batteries Of Orchards (2012) 10’15 (Fixed media - 8 channels) 

The Batteries Of Orchards is formed from various recordings of insects from around the UK including bees from the Welsh borders and wasps from the south west. With some close recording techniques and nominal processing the piece aims to explore the curious world that these garden creatures inhabit.

This is a binaural recording of the original 8 channel piece.

Batteries Of Orchards (Binaural version)

Low-bypass is derived entirely from two-channel and four-channel recordings of jet engines. These recordings were taken while the engines were under their own power as well as ‘at rest’; the motion and sound being generated was a result of the wind blowing through their tremendous turbine blades. The idea of ‘interactions’ was a central theme in both the recording and compositional processes. However, source and cause in this context are, by their very nature, abstract. Whilst my previous work has relied more on processing sounds in order to obscure and abstract them from their source, the acousmatic nature of this work relies less on processing and transformation, but instead gives more emphasis to the selection of sound sources and the recording techniques utilised to capture them.

Ben Ramsay

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