Field recordings with electronic processing.

Piece commissioned for the Locust "You'll Be Safe Forever Remixes" 12" on Editions Mego.

Corporal Genesis (2013)

Field recordings with electronic processing.

Piece from the 'Component Fixations' vinyl album on Type.

The pieces on this recording (composed over the period from 2008 to 2012, with these particular realisations fixed in 2012) are concerned with the use of sound as material and the transformation of that material (and – as such – can be viewed as extensions of concerns which are explored in my work across a range of media including text, film and installations).

The material for the pieces is exclusively sourced from environmental recordings of the immediate environs of my home and garden. While sharing the same common source material (a finite cluster of sound cells sourced from the environmental recordings), the pieces use electronic processing (both analogue and digital) and compositional structure to re-work and re-configure the material into new dialogues and to explore the relationships between elements.

Signal Filament Extensions extends the development of the preceding pieces into the laminar. Small cells of sound material have been electronically processed in order to mimic the sonic properties of sinewaves and have been overlaid in order to create a sound field which is simultaneously characteristic of stasis and movement (with development of the overlapping tones (partials) occurring on the vertical axis). This approach is intended to address the transitory aspect of sound by situating it within the realm of the eternal. The addition of the agitated cells of sound towards the end of the piece refers backwards to elements within the earlier compositions, returning in the direction of the initial starting point.

Signal Filament Extensions (2013)

Field recordings with electronic processing.

Piece from the 'Component Fixations' vinyl album on Type.

The pieces on this recording (composed over the period from 2008 to 2012, with these particular realisations fixed in 2012) are concerned with the use of sound as material and the transformation of that material (and – as such – can be viewed as extensions of concerns which are explored in my work across a range of media including text, film and installations).

The material for the pieces is exclusively sourced from environmental recordings of the immediate environs of my home and garden. While sharing the same common source material (a finite cluster of sound cells sourced from the environmental recordings), the pieces use electronic processing (both analogue and digital) and compositional structure to re-work and re-configure the material into new dialogues and to explore the relationships between elements.

Commixture forms a dialogue with Of Three Elements through the re-presentation of the source material in a different formal manner which is focused more acutely on combination, distance and stasis. The sound elements move at a more sedate pace, intermingling with each other as they move through each other and creating a more laminar approach to the source material.

Element Configuration III - ii: Commixture (2013)

Field recordings with electronic processing.

Piece from the 'Component Fixations' vinyl album on Type.

The pieces on this recording (composed over the period from 2008 to 2012, with these particular realisations fixed in 2012) are concerned with the use of sound as material and the transformation of that material (and – as such – can be viewed as extensions of concerns which are explored in my work across a range of media including text, film and installations).

The material for the pieces is exclusively sourced from environmental recordings of the immediate environs of my home and garden. While sharing the same common source material (a finite cluster of sound cells sourced from the environmental recordings), the pieces use electronic processing (both analogue and digital) and compositional structure to re-work and re-configure the material into new dialogues and to explore the relationships between elements.

The two sections of Element Configuration III form a durational and thematic whole. Of Three Elements contains intimations of the process of memory (where elements are re-presented in new contexts), foregrounding the three constituent elements (Air, Earth and Water) in an active sound spectrum characterised by agitation, the shifting of focus through the use of attack, velocity and stereo placement, and the facilitation of the combination of constituent elements into new formulations. Sounds appear and recede within this space, transmuting repetition through variation, with passages of silence acting as framing elements.

Element Configuration III - i: Of Three Elements (2013)

Work In Progress (2018 - Ongoing)

Created from a discrete sound source (a single note played on the trombone), ‘Signal Residuals’ inquires into the potential inherent in a finite volume of concrete sound material.

A series of non-linear perceptions of a sound object are explored through the re-presentation and combination of concrete material and its transmutations, expanding equivalences and oppositions.

Interpenetrating and cyclical elements fold and arc as active gestures fragment and extend the material into new forms, recalling the pulsation of breath and the ocean, the fragmentary gesture and the extended moment.

Signal Residuals (2018 - Ongoing)

Nicholas Bullen is an artist and composer based in Birmingham, England.

He has a history of musical composition spanning more than 40 years (including founding the 'extreme' music group Napalm Death, creators of the Grindcore genre). During this period, his compositions have been made available on over 40 releases and he has produced performances of his work in art galleries, theatres, cinemas and through multichannel sound systems including Sonar, Unsound, Art Basel, Eco Madrid, Institute of Contemporary Arts, CBSO Centre and BEAST. 

His work is inter-disciplinary in approach and is developed across a range of media including sound, installation, film, performance, and text. Sound-based works include installations on multichannel systems (Insula, 2012 and Three Elements, 2011) and using vinyl records (Immersions, 2006), documentation of performance actions (Openings: Call Unknown and Channel, 2001 - 2015), and a series of performance works for voice (including Breach, 2006 - ongoing) using the human voice as both material and medium for exploration.

Work has been presented internationally including Tate Britain, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Hayward Gallery, Serpentine Gallery, White Columns, Chisenhale Gallery, Arnolfini Gallery, Schirn Kunsthalle, Casino Luxembourg, Kunsthall Oslo, Vlaams Cultuurhuis de Brakke Grond and Contemporary Art Spaces Tasmania.

Nicholas Bullen

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