artwork: TLR, “Topograph #2″ (2011)
I’ll be releasing a new album entitled Hypericum (most likely via Bandcamp) sometime in the second half of the year. In the meantime here’s a digital single with two of the tracks that may make the final cut:
1. Landing On Blood (7:15)
2. Klamath (4:27)
My website and the Fleurieu Sound Map are down once again thanks to the ongoing unreliability and shitty service of dream-hosting.co.uk. I suspect I’ll be migrating everything to a new hosting service in the coming month.
Recording upon a small jetty in Milang at dawn in early May 2012.
Check them out here: http://www.tristanlouthrobins.com/fleurieu_soundmap/updates.html
I went into Light Square Gallery to do some photo documentation of my work, Corner & Shadow (After Minard) (2012.) Audio/video documentation to follow soon.
Over the past three days I’ve been working on compositions for a new full length album. I started work on an album late last year, but the recent exhibitions and other commitments have slowed things down. I’ve wanted to make a break from the drone orientated work I’ve been making over the past couple of years (Projections of Loss, various performances) and write more concise, affecting and (vaguely) melodic pieces. This also involves using a broader palette of instrumentation – the staple synths, samples and field recordings remain, but guitars and reed organ will feature prominently.
A couple of preview tracks will surface next week.
A few weeks ago I was talking to Dave Burraston about microphones and he strongly encouraged me to start building my own – specifically, hydrophones.
Hydrophones are microphones used for the purpose of recording sound in water and often consist of a transducer housed in a water resistant membrane or ceramic enclosure which facilitates the capture of vibratory phenomena. Since hydrophones aren’t conventional microphones and are confined to a specialist area of sound recording they are relatively expensive and can be difficult to acquire.
Following my discussion with Dave I knocked out a couple of inexpensive hydrophones and took them down south on a roadtrip down to Milang, South Australia earlier this month.
#1 “Bob”
- Film canister
- Male RCA plug
- Audio cable
- Small piezo transducer
- Vegetable oil
- Cling wrap
- Lots of hot glue
- Rubber bands.
Dear old Bob. What I’ve done here is taken a small piezo connected to an audio cable (wrapped it in cling wrap sealed with a small rubber band) and housed it in a film canister filled with vegetable oil. The lid of the film canister needs to have a hole punched in it to allow the audio cable to pass through. Once this has been done, several sticks of hot glue are used to seal everything up. It looks pretty ugly, but you have to make sure everything’s absolutely watertight. At the end of the audio cable I’ve connected a male RCA plug for input to a portable amplifier. The amplifier’s a must (esp. with DIY equipment like this) as you’ll want to boost/balance the signal in order to get a good signal to noise ratio.
How’s it sound? Pretty good. It’s got a reasonably good response but has the tendency to be a bit unstable in heavy water motion (lots of clunks/clipping, etc). Here’s a recording I made off a small jetty in Milang.
#2 “Nancy”
- Plastic pill box
- Male RCA plug
- Audio cable
- Medium piezo transducer
- Lots of hot glue.
Glorious Nance! This is a simpler design to Bob as it consists of just an enclosure, piezo, cable, RCA plug and a few less sticks of hot glue. I took my inspiration for this one from Leafcutter John’s Tin Can Hydrophone. It follows a similar principle and you could use practically any container to house to piezo providing it’s got a reasonable surface area for the piezo to sit (in this instance it’s been grafted to the base of the pill box with hot glue.)
I think I prefer this design to Bob as I’m able to get a more immediate and dynamic response. Here’s a recording that made with Nancy buried beneath a layer of sand on the banks of Lake Alexandrina (near Milang.) Hydrophones are used principally for recording in water but can be utilised in more unconventional ways! – as Chris Watson demonstrates in a video here
Nancy gets put to the test under a layer of sand. Thanks to Chris Watson for the inspiration!
51 loudspeakers, 7 channel audio.
Currently installed at Light Square Gallery.
3D Play will be a scientific, philosophical and art historical examination of three-dimensionality in contemporary Western culture. The works would be inspired by the history of projection devices such as the stereoscope, holograms, 1 and 2 point perspective, colour splitting and illusion and the mono-focal versus the bi-focal.
Given the huge push for 3D televisions and the upswing in 3D movies we thought it would be a pertinent exploration of this cultural shift in the way we experience images and engage in increasingly immersive entertainment and interactive technologies. Works would include the installation of video, bio-art, painting, drawing and sculpture in a playful experience of the artists’ vision of 3D.
I have show coming up next week at the Light Square Gallery where I’ll be exhibiting a new sound installation work, Corner & Shadow (2012) for fifty small loudspeakers, one large loudspeaker and visible audio cable.
Opening Night: Wed, 9th May, 6-8pm
Opening Remarks: Dr Julie Henderson
Exhibition dates: Thursday 10th May – 7 June, 2012
Participant artists:
Hans Kreiner
Tristan Louth-Robbins
Kyriaki Maragozidis
Paul Selwood
Lorelei Siegloff
Ryan Sims
Niki Sperou
Light Square Gallery
Adelaide College of the Arts
TAFESA
39 Light Square
Adelaide 5000
I was down south last weekend and made the journey to visit my ephemeral sculpture, Nude (2011) which is located on a remote beach about 4km south of Lady Bay on the Fleurieu Peninsula.
