"WHAT THE EARTH MIGHT HEAR": The complete history of the physical construction and civil-engineering of the boulevard is perhaps unknowable. The ground beneath the beneath is the sole historic witness to all the turmoil. This composition is made from multiple layers of recordings of construction sites and of water flowing and dripping, processed through a series of deep resonant filters - so that it sounds how it might to the earth itself.

WHAT THE EARTH HEARS (stereo version)

"DECORATIVE LANGUAGE": Messy, noisy sound collage made up of recordings of the gray-noise that wafts unceasingly from Beverly Boulevard's traffic mixed with excerpts of processed "decorative" music, music that heard on it's own might draw the attention of a listener or a consumer, but heard as a concurrent mash up through the non-stop noise of the street, diffuse into a barely penetrable wall of sound.

DECORATIVE LANGUAGE (stereo version)

"RIOTS": An isolated P.O.V. recording of one person running, moving through space against the sound of distant helicopters - created both synthetically and from recordings. This piece underscores the tense stillness that set in when traffic and commerce and life on the street came to an abrupt halt during the LA Riots in 1992.

RIOTS (stereo version)

"DATA POINTS": Comprised of dozens of separately played micro-rhythm performances that follow, or attempt to follow, a highly erratic tempo, representing, among other things, how people and businesses try to adjust to unforeseeable changes in the environment, the culture, the economy. The deeper pulse establishing the fluctuating tempo, is created from sharply truncated slices of the ever present traffic din that permeates life on the boulevard.

DATA POINTS (stereo version)

"JUXTAPOSITION": A prominent tool used in the sound compositions in Windshield Perspective is granular synthesis; a process that can dramatically slow down, or effectively stop sound without changing the pitch, keeping the basic aural characteristics of the source intact. The process is a natural fit with Windshield Perspective's conceptual goal of compelling us to stop and examine the scenery and culture of the street. JUXTAPOSITION begins with two short, disparate, unprocessed real-time field-recordings - one of a walk-through of the Beverly-Normandie Pet Store, another of a compressor pump found at the Beverly Catalina Car Wash. These two audio recordings are then digitally plasticized, smeared and used in contrast to one another for the remainder of the composition using granular synthesis.

JUXTAPOSITION (stereo version)

"ARCHITECTURAL STATEMENTS": Predominantly derived from a recording of a Spanish guitar performance that is heavily processed and regenerated into sonic anonymity, reflecting how one of the oldest architectural influences of the area has often (de)evolved into something almost unrecognizable, but, if one takes the time to step back and adjust to the cumulative aesthetic, is not without it's own beauty.

ARCHITECTURAL STATEMENTS (stereo version)

WINDSHIELD PERSPECTIVE May 17 - July 13 2013 at The  Architecture and Design Museum, Los Angeles (aplusd.org/exhibitions-future/windshield-perspective)

Windshield Perspective focuses on a short yet dense stretch of Beverly Boulevard from Normandie to Virgil. The windshield is both a lens and a shield; a screen which acts much like a magnifying glass to clarify the view and as a scrim to obscure the sight. This drive along Beverly stands for hundreds, if not thousands, of daily journeys through the city’s landscape. The exhibit is about seeing and not seeing.

Typically, our way of seeing from behind the wheel is unconscious. Beverly Boulevard, in its apparent bleakness, is easily dismissed as “nowhere,” falling into the hole in our consciousness put there by the dominant notion that much (if not all) of Los Angeles is not a city at all. Roll up the windows, crank up the sounds, and drive.

But a choreographed drive, recreated within the Museum and accompanied by an immersive sound environment, reveals the very essence of the built city: messy, disorderly, impromptu, and vital. Windshield Perspective will provide a way of seeing and a sight to be seen. The windshield is converted from scrim to lens.

ABOUT THE SOUND FOR WINDSHIELD PERSPECTIVE 

The main gallery of Windshield Perspective includes a 6.1 channel audio system playing six separate ambient sound-compositions created for the exhibition by composer Dan Wool. The pieces, derived largely from processed field-recordings made on the boulevard, reflect various themes highlighted in the exhibition. The compositions play consecutively to create a 97 minute program that plays on a continuous loop.

If you'd like more info about the composer, Dan Wool go to http://www.prayforrain.com

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