The idea is to imply a sense of interruption by creating sets and sub-sets of little tranquil audio components that can be switched between, brutally and abruptly. Each audio component (or loop) contains a sense of movement in order to emphasise the disturbance when it is switched on/off, so I recorded and processed instruments to convey temporal fluctuation. For example, some of the material includes exponentially plucked banjo, fwd/bwd looping piano chords, filtered random noise and wobbling analogue synthesizer.

The medium of tape was of huge significance to the Bibio piece. I took that as my starting point and considered the mechanics of the medium. The grainy residue of his recorded elements was very characteristic, so i decided to smooth this out while retaining the harmonic values and brought them into the digital realm. This gave me a collection of chords to build my own loops over.

It struck me that when you pause a tape machine, the next time you press play the recording begins from where it was interrupted. Most digital samplers will always revert to the start of a recording when you pause them, so I assembled some software to enable a tape machine-like playback. Using a computer enabled me to set up a live performance environment in which I could instinctively switch between hundreds of little audio components.
I am very interested in generative techniques in music composition and this set-up provided an infinite number of loop combinations, as there was no syncing or governing tempo. The contact points between the loops being turned on and off became the central theme to the performance and suggested either a series of conveyor belts or a complex system of switches.

As I was cultivating wild facial hair during the building of the performance so I called it "A Beard of Mercury Switches".

Dunk Murphy / September 2009
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Relay is an online music project devised and curated by musician John Lambert (aka Chequerboard). Explore the project in full at www.relayproject.com

A Beard Of Mercury Switches by Sunken Foal

The Relay Project