The Vagus Nerve Noise Performance @ Dependance, Baden Switzerland, April 2009

A few weeks ago my partner in crime dropped the fact that I would be performing a noise set at a party in Baden. I had two weeks to write a piece of music that I could perform live which meant building a bank of electronic bits and pieces and a chain of guitar effects that would reproduce live whatever I came up with.

The result of a Saturday messing around with Pure Data and a birds nest of wires can be downloaded here.

I understand that this sort of experimental noise music is not for everyone and it is also argued by some that this is not music, but what is music? This has been part of an exploration I have been engaged in on and off since I started to play guitar 13 years ago. At the time I was listening to groups like the Smashing Pumpkins and Pearl Jam, then I discovered Sonic Youth. It was then that I realized I liked to make interesting sounds and noise as opposed to what most people would consider typical songs or music. I enjoyed the freedom the genre afforded me to simply experiment without any musical confines but it was not until the internet really took off that I was able to find more artists and groups doing similar things.

I didn't record anything in these early days because of a lack a method of recording and because the equipment I had did not let me articulate the sounds I wanted to make.

It was a few years before I had a laptop and a good knowledge of electronics before I finally built my first oscillator and from there started to experiment with ring modulation and feedback. It took me another couple of years to really start to pull things together before I was confident enough and satisfied enough to put my work out on the web.

Looking around the net you find website and forums dedicated to defunct noise bands like C.C.C.C and Incapacitants and you get the feeling that this genre has come and gone as fresh art form but artists like Merzbow and Astro defy this perception and continue to innovate. Sonic Youth are still making interesting records. I feel artists like Yuri Landsman the circuit bending community and DIY audio movement have taken the scene to a new physically interesting and more financially accessible (and to a certain degree FUN) level. I recently found this short documentary on Youtube that I feel perfectly demonstrates how I feel about this art form:-)

I believe we are on the cusp of a renaissance in user generated sonic art, it has been on the rise for several years now since the advent of myspace and youtube put publishing in the hands of everyday people. A search of either of these two sites and not to mention archive.org throws up a mass of truly innovative experimental pieces that demonstrate peoples need to create and among the works you will find raw innovative creativity and emotion. It may not always be what you like musically but it is fresh and very fun.

Enjoy...



And my little friend was kind enough to record two videos of the piece.

Part 1...



Part 2...



All for now, J.