Tag Archives: Live Recording

Postfauxpocalypse Live Show Excerpt

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Here’s a two minute excerpt from my live performance, Postfauxpocalyse, on October 24, 2013 at Popup Northrop. Recorded directly from a Mackie 1202 VLZ Pro to a Sony PCM-D50 at 48kHz/24bit. The only instruments used were a DSI Tempest, Korg Volca Keys, and Korg Monotribe. I also used a Memory Man analog delay during the performance.

“Postfauxpocaplypse brings together MAW members Jenny Schmid, Davey T. Steinman and Eben Kowler with musician John Keston for a night projection event that employs live drawing, animation, wireless camera feed, roaming interactive performance and responsive soundscapes. This piece responds to our current post-fake-apocalyptic state of illusion by embracing morbid seasonal imagery to respond to non-functioning governments, surveillance and a culture of excess.”

Instant Cinema Work in Progress Video

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Jon Steinhorst put together this video preview for our Northern Spark project, Instant Cinema: Teleportation Platform X. It was compiled from footage that was shot during our recent work-in-progress performance at the Northrup King for the Visual Storage exhibition. This should provide a small scale example of what to expect from the final performance on June 8, 2013.

DKO at FRANK Part 3: Everyday Music

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This is another excerpt from a performance by DKO from the MCAD MFA open studio night on December 7, 2012. The document features Oliver Grudem (not shown) who produced the audiovisual score in real-time. The video and sound coming from the LED display and loud speaker below it was broadcast into the performance space as Oliver walked around the Minneapolis Uptown area during a snow storm. Listen for traffic, footsteps, car horns, and the occasional blurt of humans speech. The visuals and sound from his walk provided a “score” for the ensemble to respond to as we improvised. Oliver was also able to hear the musical reactions to the audiovisual score as he was broadcasting and respond accordingly.

The piece was recorded with my custom built binaural head microphone (Vincent) to capture the sound localization of the performance space. Remember that it is necessary to wear high quality, circumaural headphones to experience the binaural effect. While watching, imagine you are in the same position as Vincent. You should hear the bass clarinet in your left ear, the Rhodes and synthesizers to the right and the drums and video sound in front. The relative height of the sound should also be noticeable.

DKO at FRANK Part 2: Everyday Music (2012)

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This is an excerpt from a performance by DKO from the MCAD MFA open studio night on December 7, 2012 as discussed in the post Live Binaural Recording of DKO with Oliver Grudem. The document features Oliver Grudem (not shown) who produced the audiovisual score in real-time. The video and sound coming from the LED display and loud speaker below it was broadcast into the performance space as Oliver walked around the Minneapolis Uptown area during a snow storm. The visuals and sound from his walk provided a “score” for us to respond to as we improvised. Oliver was also able to hear our musical reactions to the audiovisual score as he was broadcasting and respond accordingly.

The piece was recorded with my custom built binaural head microphone to capture the sound localization of the performance space. NOTE: It is necessary to wear high quality headphones to experience the binaural effect. The spatial properties of studio monitors are also acceptable but will not produce the same localization of the sound sources. Thanks goes out to Eric Dowell for shooting video of the one hour long performance. I am working on editing a shorter version to briefly summarize the essence of the piece. This 13 minute video is a more in depth snapshot of what the performance entailed.

David Byrne’s Installation with DKO in Binaural Sound

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This is another binaural recording featuring David Byrne’s installation “Playing the Building” at Aria in Minneapolis, this time with the ensemble DKO (Jon Davis on bass clarinet, John Keston on the installation, and Graham O’Brien on percussion).

You can read more about the installation at Aria’s website, but it lends itself perfectly to being documented through binaural recording techniques because the sounds literally come from all around you. There are motors, mallets, and pipes installed on walls, girders, and metal stairs in the historic, gutted, warehouse building, all which are activated from the keyboard of a repurposed, antique, pump organ.

The recording was made with a custom built binaural head microphone. I made the device with a styrofoam mannequin head, a set of silicone ears designed for acupuncture practice, and a pair of Shure MX202 microphones embedded into the ear canals. Once again it is critical that you wear headphones to experience the localized binaural effect, although I just listened on my studio monitors and it sounds very clear and wide, maintaining lots of the spatial qualities.