During the pandemic, conferencing software quickly became a required part of work and education culture.
Of course, this technology’s ability to keep us connected has been an important part of keeping people safe, but we’ve also discovered the quirks of this mode of communication. Being bound to this remote interaction inspires curiosity about its potential for collaborative creativity. Musicians have know for a while about the issues of internet latency in coordinating remote ensembles, but what if, instead of attempting to recreate the conditions of a traditional performance in this new medium, we embraced the “space” created by this conferencing software?
In the pieces on this cassette, two analog synthesizers are put into contact via conference software. The audio signal is sent between the two synthesizers, and a feedback loop is created between the two instruments. Feedback loops, such as when we put a microphone close to a speaker, emphasize the resonant frequencies—the imperfections—of a system. As we know, the audio of conferencing software is an imperfect connection, with latency, filtering, and audio compression artifacts.
This conferencing-software feedback loop, then, emphasizes these imperfections, bringing out the character of this communication medium as an emergent soundscape.
All aspects of this cassette embrace this interplay of analog and digital: analog synthesizers, digital feedback loops; pieces were digitally recorded, but mixed with on a hybrid setup with analog EQ and compression; recorded to tape, and also re-digitized for download.
