1908 Upright Piano (not played, but all strings left open).
Small powered stereo speakers plus subwoofer (behind piano).
Tascam DR-07mk2 (in front of piano, to both record and feed the speakers).
Feedback is controlled by moving speakers in and out of regions of resonance created by the soundboard and strings, which also act as a sort of plate reverb.
Crow calls and passing truck noise preserved for increased feelings of doom.
Recorded 2013 November 25.

Piano Feedback 2

Ice melts. Water pools. A highway runs nearby. A raven calls and swoops by. (I need a better windscreen.)

Frog Lake ice and raven, December 15

We pedal bicycles through a tunnel and sing. Traffic passes through a deeper tunnel nearby. Mercury vapor lamps buzz and hum. The space offers reverberation. We ride out of the tunnel. A jet flies over.

Bike Tunnel, December 25, Seattle

1908 Upright Piano. 
Felt mute strip in front of all hammers.
Small metal pieces hooked on selected strings. 
The piece ends when the hammer shank of the A fractures.
Recorded 2014 January 15.

Prepared Piano 1

IBM 29 Key Punch (1964) and IBM 82 Card Sorter (1949).
Both available at the <a href="http:\\livingcomputermuseum.org">Living Computer Museum</a> in Seattle.
Recorded 2014 January 12.

Punchcard Machines at the Living Computer Museum

cheap computer mic at open lid of piano > pitch detector > variable pitch shifts up to +/- one octave > four oscillators > loudspeakers inside piano with strings undamped > repeat...&#13;
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The pitch detector is the fiddle~ object in Pure Data. Pitch shifts and volumes of oscillators are controlled via MIDI controller (though much of the activity occurs with little input, due to chaotic feedback). Recorded with stereo room mic (Tascam DR-07mk2).

Pitch Detection Feedback

Washington Coast, Olympic Peninsula
Recorded 2014 April 10

Kalaloch Night

On the Bainbridge-Seattle ferry, wind excites vibrations in the railings (I think) at the front of the boat, which go up and down the harmonic series as the wind intensity changes. 

A better recording could be made with access to the highest level of the boat (usually not available to passengers) and a real windscreen.

Recorded 2014 June 15.

Download here: http://fchemotti.com/audio/20140615-aeolian_ferry.mp3

Aeolian Harmonics on the ferry

Recorded 2014 Aug 17 outdoors in Sam Smith Park, Seattle.
Piano performance by F Chemotti (instrument courtesy of Pianos in the Parks program, http://pianosintheparks.com), other sounds from environment.
Processed by custom Python program to rearrange audio in crossfaded chunks.

Piano in the Park

Unmanipulated acoustic accordion. This instrument has a variety of flaws which make it poorly-suited for playing anything other than drones. Enjoy.

Jan 7 accordion

Pure Data patch performed with MIDI keyboard and controller. The voices of the patch each consist of 8 detuned sine oscillators, which are heard both directly and as modulator of the frequency of another sine oscillator.


20110804 detune shimmer

A short evening walk around my home for the summer: breeze in the aspen trees, traffic on highway 82, and music students (doing what music students do).

Burlingame Evening

Sound art. Field recording. Piano. Pure Data and Max/MSP. 

F Chemotti

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