[ self ] some words for jan

The Contextual Academic History of [ self ].

This project follows on from my Research module where my focus was on vocal processing techniques and my Sonic Signatures module where I studied and identified the Sonic Signatures of Trent Reznor, Amon Tobin and Justin Broadrick.

The Studied Signatures.

Trent Reznor - Vocal processing with distortion and stereo delay.

Also his use of dramatic shifts in the  overall sonics and textural space of a piece.

Amon Tobin - Gestural fills using foley or found sounds.

Justin Broadrick - Heavy distorted dance beats and bass.

 [ self ] An ‘Academic’ Description.

As with all my work, I always focus on the journey not the destination.

Where everything leads to the next part until one has to eventually end it all.

[ self ] is one piece, from start to finish.

Everything has it’s place and context within the eclectic journey.

It’s for listening to all the way through, eyes closed, as to create your own visual experience and essentially not distract from your listening experience.

An unusual fading concept in a world where music is mainly ‘listened’ to whilst looking at a visual on a screen.

The almost forgotten art of a ‘concept album’ is alive, and I think should be encouraged here when describing this EP.

The piece moves through a disorientating self righteous intro of evolving found sounds and spatial shifts in intensity that articulate and emulate in some way the studied sonic signatures of Mr Reznor and Tobin before moving to a dark foreboding self harming shift in texture of the piece that is also felt with the almost dystopian bleakness and honesty of the lyrical content.

As with this journey there alway needs to be some kind of dynamic context and a soothing and comforting space is then reached with a more organic feel of the strings and piano that open up into the spoken word section of self belief .

The self indulgence of nostalgia takes over as I relive a time where heavy industrial dance was a natural and daily obsessional place for me. Heavy kicks and dramatic intensity fill the piece to create an almost anti-interlude that once finished seems like it was only there to emphasise the lush space that follows. A self actualising space, accepting where one is at a certain part of our lives. Beautiful vocals scatter around the driving rhythms that reach a crescendo of strings and before you know it we are at an end where the artist has been reduced to self pity, a sad destructive but all be it inevitable place for the artist/composer to be at this point. 

Once the journey is finished, will anybody get it? Will anyone listen to it?

Essentially and more importantly it doesn’t matter.

Get over it already and move on and create more.