Available for your ears here, on the Room40 Bandcamp.
"Music For Listeners (2)" is collection of psychoacoustic compositions and, with regards to its predecessor (Music For Listeners, 2020, Linear Obsessional), a continuation of sonic experiments for the in-tune and audio conscious listener. Systematically scattered and symmetrically sprinkled through the album are experiments in physical relationality, food for silent thought and songs for your inner ear to sing along to.
The physically relational pieces are another nod at (meta)ambient and an experimental continuation of 'furniture music' and of my own experiments in experiential music making.
The silences, I think, will speak for themselves.
The otoacoustic compositions on this album seek to expand our practical understanding of inner ear distortions: how to treat the inner ear as a subjective musical instrument and how to then, with finesse, subtly and carefully perform melodies and rhythms therewith.
(An otoacoustic cloud of aleatoric noise;
a melody consisting of two dissonant voices/ one total otoacoustic distortion and output;
a spatialized otoacoustic drone which may be traversed in physical spacetime, whose distortions may be navigated by the listener-gone performer.)
In down and up time, the in between moments, I find my self at my desk, in my shared flat in Berlin, chewing on sound. It is a comfortable nest, an eddy of thought and practice I consistently return to.
Some questions I continue to stew on:
1. How can we discover a music, that includes objective events yet allows for and even promotes subjective interpretations?
2. What is the best descriptivist definition of "listening"?
3. How do I pin a listener to themselves?
4. What unites us and how can I shape this common denominator into a tool that helps me answer question #3 in this list?
If nothing more, these are the little pieces that busy my hands and ears with, the little pieces I am filling my existence with.
I hope you hear something you like, happy listening and thank you for your understanding,
Ben
PS Something to note, real quick: the "cochlear sing along songs" can be experienced with headphones or via speakers. The tonal ratios, and their effect on the ear, can be quite intense. Please mind your ears.
On a similar note: the "relativistic waves" (both "hello" and "byebye") are best experienced through speakers in an open room. This same goes for "clock, which tells multiple times (spatio-polyrhythmic breathing room)".
Ok, thank you.
released December 13, 2024