Asphixiator is an extremely indulgent audio project which aims to remove all traditional musical elements and leave only pure sound. It consists of textural soundscapes created through careful manipulation of individual sound sources, be they musical intruments or something more abstract such as breath or electric hum. It is of even more marginal interest than any of my other projects, and very likely unlistenable to the average ears.
Red is a razer sharp study in improvised noise music, consisting of a single lengthy passage of distorted bass performed live through the almighty Boss DF-2 Feedbacker pedal. This is the kind of recording that has no reason to exist except that for some reason, I was compelled to make it and enjoyed every second of it.
The mood of this piece is abstract beyond description, but suffice to say nobody should ever listen to it ever.
Following on from Black, comes this study in the application of pure noise. Some of the static elements in this recording come from a cool idea I got from some guy I used to know where noise is generated from converting large random data files into sound files. I also performed some vocals on several tracks, not that they are identifiable as such.
The result of all this is an uncomprimising noise record that just about nobody would ever be interested in. Awesome huh? And if you thought this was too self-indulgent, boy wait till you hear Red.
First in a series of linked colour-themed recordings. This particular recording is, as its title suggests, a study of darkness, but not just as an oppressive force, also as a natural absense of light. On the one hand light can be seen as invasive force into the safe dark world of the womb. Where white noise represents the absolute saturation of a signal with noise, black represents the absolute absense of noise (although it is not a universally accepted scientific term). In this way, Black's compositions are built from silence upwards, rather than the traditional Asphixiator process which starts with a sound and molds it into the intended shape. The process of creating this album was extremely liberating in that respect, and I'm really happy with the results.
In keeping with this, Black focuses less on pure noise and static, and more on actual recorded elements and reverberated ambience. A further influence are foley recordings. There are a number of recorded background elements in this release, most predominently rain and footsteps.
Also in the works are White and Red inspired by the concepts of white noise and red noise, each with their own indiviual "soundworlds" and compositional processes. The very end of Black hints at the next recording.
A short EP that develops the Asphixiator aesthetic in the direction of communication by utilising careful stereo panning, vocal recordings and even a slight sense of melody in the form of long pitched tones. This EP aims to evoke a feeling of coded communications, be they military commands or interstellar transmissions.
The art is an homage to Stephen O'Malley's Khanate cover designs.
The first Asphixiator sets out to clean out the listener's ears by bombarding them with focussed sounds at a wide range of frequencies. Imagine it as a scrubbing brush for your sense of hearing. Track 8, for example, is a voyage through very low frequency earthquake-esque hum in a sub-bass spectrum (ie. turn your subwoofers up).
Sound sources on this recording include: guitar, bass guitar, synths, samplers, voice, toy voice changer, djembe, Electroplankton* (via DS Lite) and Texas Instruments' Speak & Math.
*The wonderful Electroplankton audio toy for Nintendo DS by Toshio Iwai.