O Grivo is a duo of Brazilian musicians-sound designers formed by Nelson Soares and Marcos Moreira, whose work can be currently seen and heard in the US as a part of the Soundtracks exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco. The duo has a broad palette of activities, ranging from film sound to the visual arts. All the different aspects of their work seem … [Read more...]
Rio – Tokyo: sound installations within the city
Thinking how to address this month's topic about sound installations, it occurred to me to write about a subject that is often neglected: the place that reproduced sounds has in the contemporary urban soundscape. Sounds generated by PA systems, sound alerts, radio, television, cellphones… These are all sounds that aren't necessarily produced at the place where … [Read more...]
Finding the right words: an interview with Michel Chion
In this exclusive interview for desiginingsoud.org, the great researcher Michel Chion talks about the intersections between sound and language in his theoretical work. The ramifications are countless ranging from the place of the spoken word in film sound and the particularities of French language heard at the cinema to the new discipline of Acoulogy created by him. Have a nice … [Read more...]
Recording Life and Nature: an interview with Gordon Hempton
With more than 30 years of professional activity, Gordon Hempton has dedicated most of his life to listen and record the sounds of nature, an endangered soundscape that he has sworn to protect as a recordist and an activist. Part of his life work has been made available for the rest of the sound community since 2012 trough the now very popular Quiet Planet sound libraries. … [Read more...]
Sonic interactions with the world: an interview with Hildegard Westerkamp
Thoughts on sound interactivity on different kinds of media should perhaps be accompanied by thoughts on how we relate to our daily sonic environment. Roughly speaking, the world we live in is actually the first and most important interface we have to deal with and sound plays a big part in that relationship whether we take it for granted or not. Internationally acclaimed … [Read more...]
Building a workflow through trial and error – an interview with Alessandro Laroca and Eduardo Virmond from 1927 Audio
Photo by Alessandro Laroca 1927 Audio is one of the most successful post production facilities in Brazil with numerous national awards, one MPSE best sound in a foreign film award for City of God and a MPSE nomination for Elite Squad 2. In this interview, Alessandro Laroca and Eduardo Virmond, the two creative minds ahead of the studio, recall their professional paths: a … [Read more...]
A few places for recorded sound
Picture by T. Rider This article is intended as a small reflection about the place of recorded sounds in three artistic domains that use it as a working material: film sound, concrete music and sound arts related to the soundscape approach. Recorded sound is analyzed here over two main aspects: causality and context. Hopefully, these brief words will serve as an introduction … [Read more...]