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piano 507
ext.night -david cunningham
ext.night >this CD got stuck in my apple mac and I was forced to listen to it for over a week before it would eject of its own accord...
wide shot >
everycity -anywhere -late at night, probably after the private view/food/drink.tracking shot >
walk to the bank machine, interact, get a satisfactory result.estab.shot >
it's wet, it's warm.
hank marvin in a small black suit at the next lamppost plucks some notes (close up)
the sounds know you and your life(style).close up >
the girl in a spangly dress, sounds jangle from her earrings. atmosphere ambient -pull focus >
the cinematic metaphors of form are inescapable as the music and sound expand.
tension out of sight, don't close your eyes or let the music be your guide.
you need point-of-view.focus >
ext.night is a sixty minute ambience derived from a few fragments of guitar playing treated by looping, overlaying, permutating and playback at different tape speeds.this CD seems to work best when played very quietly. reports indicate that it is also an effective relief from migrane headaches.
one morning in july 1992 I decided to make a 'barbeque ambience' for playback later in that same day on a system of small speakers distributed around the yard outside my old studio in brixton. the small community of artists from the surrounding studios used this yard for barbeques in the summer. my studio, being the nearest source of noise would become, by default, a very minimal discotheque for the evening.
my self-imposed discipline was to try and make a continuous background atmosphere entirely derived from about one minute of guitar recorded that morning and finish it before the barbeque was lit. this music is the result.
as that evening continued I noticed that if the tape played back very quietly, below the level of peoples' voices, their conversation became quieter. subjectively I felt that the quality and intensity of that conversation improved.
this hypothesis was tested again a month later when the tape became the music for a bar I used to frequent and where I was becoming interested in lowering the overall level of noise in order to have a sensible conversation. background music in bars in england is becoming the loudest in the world and I don't appreciate having to lip read and shout all evening.
david cunningham 1997
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© 1998 david cunningham