The Art of Noises. A talk and performance

 Leighton Buzzard has/had a 'Pop up' Arts Centre in the old Wilkos store on the High Street. This is a fantastic space and resource for the town. The organisation is Culture Co:LB

 

This you tube video shows the space and explains it's aims.

  https://youtu.be/7J9YP-gvEcU?si=YnLx6OAtdp6jad2b

 and Culture Co:LB's website is here.

https://culturecolb.uk/

The group is looking for proposals for events so I submitted a talk and demonstration of my machines. Something I've been meaning to do for a long time.

The talk and demonstration was well received and the Art centre described it as a great event, with over 30 people attending. However I didn’t think it went well. I found it very stressful. My laptop wouldn't connect to the projector to show my power point presentation, so I had to convert it to a PDF and up load it to a shared drive to be linked and downloaded on another laptop, which sounds easy now I'm explaining it but I up loaded an unfinished earlier version. Doing all this meant I couldn't properly sound test my machines so the performance aspect was poor. It was like being back in the classroom with the everything going wrong and out of control. Oh and a school inspector is about to enter!

Needless to say I did not get to properly record the event. Here's a clip of the confusion, thankfully John Garrad artist and musician was on hand to drive the performance along.

 Anyhow I've learnt a lot from this experience for Art of Noises 2! Many thanks to the Culture Co: LB for giving me this opportunity.

 

 

 

The Scoppiatori Exploder/ Burster revisited.

As I've mentioned before my building these machines is in part a practical investigation to discover how they might have sounded and played in a modern context. I've decided my build of the the Scoppiatori Exploder/ Burster is wrong. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I started from the premise that it was similar to the standard intonarumori  with a drum and string but stood on its end. But I don't think there is any reason for this. I now think it is a mechanical drum probably based on designs by Leonardo da Vinci which Russolo would have been aware. Page 984r Codex Atlanticus. Which is held in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in MIlan.

Mechanical kettle drum. Page 984r Codex Atlanticus, Picture from Wikimedia commons.

I also don't like the sounds the machine makes. I feel they don't compliment or are that different from my other three intonarumoris. It is also far too complicated a design.

Here's the machine about to be dismantled, showing the glockenspiel, 'sonic hamster wheel' and other mechanism.  

I'll  be looking to reuse some of these mechanisms or even make them into stand alone machines. 

I'm going to raise the drum and create a platform for my motor driven beaters to hit the drum. Using speed controllers this will allow for different rhythms to be set.

I've inserted a board at an angle to re-direct the sound to the horn opening. I saw this on the machines designed by Luciano Chessa at the Wigmore hall concert.  I will be keeping the levers to tighten the tone on the drum using either the design from Russolo's musikinstrument patent or a string as in the Ronzatori. The other levers can lower objects on to the drum to either 'dance' or to be hit by the motor beaters. Which will hopefully create the sounds Russolo describes in his book, The Art of Noises, '....like the bursting of objects that break and shatter' or 'make a noise similar to that of  a gasoline engine..' But I will see how my practical experimentation will go.

 

David Lien musician, educator, and filmmaker visits.

David Lien Musician, Educator, and Filmmaker paid me a visit to see my intonarumori. He wanted to film my machines and interview me for an episode on his Youtube channel 'The instrument makers'.

I hired out a local church hall for an afternoon where my machines could be set out, amplified and played. It was the first time four of my machines had been brought together and played. Needless to say this process still needs to be given a little more thought. 

It was a very enjoyable afternoon, David made a number of useful suggestions and his interest has inspired me to further develop the project. The visit ended with us playing a short improvised performance you can hear below.

 

 

 

Blank Frank · Intonarumori performance with David Lein Musician, Educator, and Filmmaker

 Motorik or What!

The Musikinstrument is nearly finished. I just need to tidy some aspects up. The individual tubes need separate microphones to amplify the sound in the tubes which other wise cannot be heard. This in turn needs to be to be put through a pre-amp and a mixer in order for the instrument to be played. I also need to learn how to play it!

 Very Motorik as some one has said.

 Russolo in his patent suggests that, 'Instead of pipes, resonators of another kind,
e.g. strings, can be used.' Here I think I'm going to try a metal spring which was used in another of Russolo's machines.

Set the controls for the heart of the Sun

One aspect of my work is a practical investigation into these sound machines. I feel I have tried to make the scissor mechanism work by adding a support and sliding rails but this does not improve the operation, so I will take up Russolo's suggestion in his patent that this Nurnberg (Nuremberg) scissor type mechanism 'can be replaced by any other type of construction'. I'm going to use simple levers and pulleys, mechanisms Russolo has used in his other machines. 

Supporting rails and linear bearings.

Addition of the pulleys. Still thinking about keeping the scissor mechanism in place.

Pulleys and lever controls. This mechanism works, the only problem I have at the moment is the string 'riding off ' the pulleys. My next step is to amplify the sound in the tubes and then tidy the machine up.

Musikinstrument final assembly and failure.

People who looked at the patent plans said it wouldn't work. I wasn't too sure but by making the machine as faithfully to the plans I hoped to find out what any problems might be. Here's the final assembly.

 

 

Mechanically there is too much movement, twisting and pivoting on the lever mechanism to pull the tubes up. Either some structural supports need to be added or a completely new slider mechanism devised. Russolo in his patent says that this Nurnberg (Nuremberg) scissor type mechanism 'can be replaced by any other type of construction'. 

The extension of the tubes would seem to make no difference to the sound. There is a pitch difference but that is made by the underneath pressure roller tightening the drum skin. The sound is similar to that made by my Ronzatori where the drum skin is tightened by the string. In fact Russolo suggests that the pipes could be replaced by 'resonators of another kind, e.g. Strings could be used'. 

So as I blogged earlier I suspect that like the Instrument de Musique this machine was never made and really only the sketch of an idea to be developed. Ultimately the sounds it makes are a little underwhelming given the effort made to realize the machine.

Musikinstrument progress

 Using a 3d printer I've started to print out the brackets and flanges for the telescopic tubes. Now I'm quite confident at coding and using the printer I might look to add printed parts to my earlier machines.

Starting to take shape. I'm not convince this is going to work. The levers seem too flimsy and the whole mechanism will perhaps need some support.

The Sonic Hamster Wheel

Russolo describes his Scoppiatori Exploder/ Burster as producing 'noises like the bursting of objects that break and shatter', I've had a bit of difficulty trying to recreate this effect. At first I was thinking along the lines of a lever using strings to lift up on a number of metal plates similar to a Venetian blind, to then drop and crash down on to a suitable resonating material. But my experiments produced a very unsatisfactory sound. So I'm now planning to using a rotating drum which will lift up a variety of material such as metal, ball bearings in the manner of a cement mixer to let it crash down. Of course the use of cement mixers and revolving drums in sound art is well established. I attended the re-enactment of the Concerto for voice and machinery at the ICA in 2007. Here the performers used two cement mixers into which were smashed bottles. You can see excerpts from this here...... 

https://youtu.be/9RcGxi2Z7J0 

Please google 'Concerto for voice and machinery ICA' for links to videos and further information about this event and the original performance in 1984. In the original performance power tools were used to destroy the stage. The performers included Genesis P-Orridge and members of Einstürzende Neubauten. By comparison my hamster style wheel will be very tame.

A metal wrap to reproduce an industrial sound. The mesh is to let the sound out.

Things are starting to get a little tight fitting things inside the intonarumori.

Here's a brief test using some ball bearings, nuts and bolts. The design of the wheel will allow these contents to be changed.

Here's the wheel fitted inside the intonarumori.

MK Calling 2020

Yeah I was there too......https://www.mkgallery.org/whats-on/mk-calling-2020/

Sound Sense exhibition

I thought I'd say a little more about the current Sound Sense exhibition at the Whitechapel art gallery in London. Which is on until the 1st of Feb 2020.

Even though this exhibition is in a small gallery there is a lot here about the sixties Fluxus artists involved in music and sound. Fluxus art is well represented in London at the moment with the Tate Modern showing the work of Nam June Paik. I'm a bit ambivalent about the Fluxus performances where pianos are ripped to pieces but I'm very inspired by the musical instruments they created and was fascinated to learn about the music machines of Joe Jones. A machine on show is a glockenspiel which is played automatically by a small electric motor.

Music Kit Xylophone

You can read more about this instrument here.

 https://www.fondazionebonotto.org/it/collection/fluxus/jonesjoe/1023.html

In this work he  shares how to make the instrument. So predates blogs and youtube instructional videos.

You can listen to his music here.

http://www.ubu.com/sound/jones.html

Joe also performs his automated music machines on Yoko Ono's  Fly album. Which is remarkable.

 He's plays on the tracks "Airmale", "Don't Count the Waves" and "You"

You can see his machines on the inside of the gate fold sleeve. This shows a variety of musical instruments hanging from frames and the small electric motors which spin effects to 'play' the strings or hit the percussion.

I was able to get a book which accompanied  a 1990's exhibition of his machines in Germany, this shows a considerable body of work. The dull cover in no way reflects the vast number of photos and drawings in the book.

His music machines are often a playful pun on an idea, such as the instruments in cages being a homage to John Cage and as I've described before often contain an actual musical instrument 'played' by a small electric motor, all within a sculptural framework.

This 'playing' by the small electric motor is automatic, sometimes activated by solar power and a degree of randomness is created by the swing of the motor caused by the striking on the instruments playing surface or strings.

Scoppiatori glockenspiel fitting.

As this will be the last intonarumori I will probably make, I'm trying to get a multitude of effects and sounds within the frame work of the basic Russolo design. Doing so will make the instrument more interesting to perform, as there are only so many hours of droning you can bear to play. Today I fitted a glockenspiel which is activated by the same arm which slides the bridge. It produces a great glissando. It will also be played using a keyboard and solenoids. Should I have time I'll also look  to connecting it to an Arduino, but that is very much in the future.

glockenspiel with solenoids

Glockenspiel fitted

On the subject of glockenspiels, I recently visited the Whitechapel art gallery in London, to see 'Sense Sound/Sound Sense Fluxus Music, Scores & Records in the Luigi Bonotto Collection'

This is a great exhibition about various sound art practitioners in the 60's. I was interested to learn about the work of Joe Jones who too seems to have used small electric motors to effect sounds on a variety instruments including guitars, drums and glockenspiels. I'm going to explore his work further. Listening to a recording of Joe's work, the performance of my mechanical glockenspiel at the UFO pavilion sounds very similar. Groan the impossibility of being original.

Right side levers which pull motor driven discs into play on the string

UFO Performance

I was invited by my friend Richard Powell to perform at the the UFO pavilion in Northampton. I suspect Richard was hoping I would bring along my intonarumoris,  but I saw this as an opportunity to trial my Bombe. Unfortunately I was making the machine 'performance ready' the morning of the day. Which meant I had no time to practice and to appreciate how it was going to play and sound.

As much as I would have liked the UFO (Racecourse) pavilion to be a homage to the heavy metal band of my youth or SciFi conotations, it stands for the more worthwhile Umbrella Fair Organisation. The event was part of Graham Fudger's 'Illuminating Art' project.

This shows the unfinished keyboard and cam note sequencer. To be quite honest the performance was not good. I thought I could 'wing' it but without a proper sound check and practice it felt too harsh and disjointed. Still I learnt a lot and people made a number of helpful suggestions at the end which I will act on. Here's the recording. Note I apologize half way through at some of the harsh notes.

 

The Bletchley Park Bombe near completion.

Things are starting to come together. I've completed the main body of 'The Bombe' and made a submission to the MK Gallery open for next year.

Bombe Front

Bombe back, showing cam sequencer unit.

I've still to explore the machine properly. Here's a short video of it playing.

I quite like the gentle sound it produces and the added bird song.

Here are my machines to date.The classic four piece rock band or quartet set up.

I've been invited to play at the Umbrella fair in Northampton 20th July, The UFO Pavilion.

The Bletchley Park 'Bombe' progress

The Cells are starting to be assembled. There's a lot of work to do here. I am wondering about the wisdom of my original intent to make 32 cells. I'll see how I get on with 16 and more importantly what it will sounds like.

The laminated letter dials are only temporary and will be replaced by laser cut and engraved acrylic discs. I'm finding it a bit of a challenge using a laser cutter, but where has this wonderful machine been all my life.

I retired from teaching just as these machines started to appear in schools. I would have found it a lot more useful in a classroom context than the 3d printer which I did have.

2nd November 2018

Change of plan. I've decided to change the sound mechanism from a lamellophone to a glockenspiel. I found the lamellophone difficult to tune and to make the mechanism actuate. The glockenspiel is easier to tune using mathematical formulae and sounds closer to the metallic mechanical sound of the original bombe. It is also easier to construct and produces a more pleasing sound. Note the second resonating pipe.