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Difficulté de comprendre dans le bruit
SELEKTION 2001, 8 tracks, CD







DIFFICULTE DE COMPRENDRE DANS LE BRUIT

It is always very difficult and almost impossible for me to summarize in a few sentences the ideas behind this recording, because it tends to become strangely complex.
Moreover, I believe that "difficulté de comprendre dans le bruit", resists the process of reduction to only one subject. Some of the things I can tell after the completion of this disc, and which could possibly interest you, are the questions that were the drive behind this project for me. They have therefore directly or indirectly influenced the process of the recordings. In addition, while making these recordings I also kept a few things in my mind, namely, dealing with different aspects of concrete sounds and how one could treat them in the context of a musical work. I hope that all this inquiry can evoke the 'climate' which gave birth to this disc a little.

-can reality be acoustically reproduced

-can the truth be the sum of what we see, feel, hear

-what's the importance of the context in field recordings

-how can the listener's environment coexist (e.g. be assimilated and merged) and act as an additional sonic event and how will this real-time random environment influence the overall sound perception

-what -in this case- makes a represented object real for the listener

-what makes a sound typical, what is the core of a particular sound

-to what extent can I interfere with the original field recordings

-how far do I need to change a sound so that it becomes unrecognizable

-to what degree can I manipulate my original recordings, in a way that my interventions become subliminal

-could I make fake field recordings

-how can field recordings become a musical object

"Difficulté de comprendre dans le bruit" is explicitly not a culmination of various field recordings. The essence of this work is a piece of music. The field recordings for this record where chosen according to two major criteria: the acoustical and the subjective (emotional) quality. The tracks for this recording are based on the idea of using field recordings and treating them as sonic objects. The approach to these sounds could be like the relation of sentences, words, and letters... What I mean is that the sounds in field recordings are as much an event in relation to a context as it is an event in relation to its micro-level. This work involves finding the balance between - and showing - these levels. Using the concrete situations I captured, I was not attempting to compose or tell a story. The bottom line was that the narrative events could at some point become a completely transparent layer on top of which I would work. A story line was no prerequisite in this work. In the final result this story line sometimes adds an interesting extra layer, at other times it stays uninteresting and unnecessary. As a physical element, however, it remains essential. The characteristics of environmental sounds cause this work to keep moving in a specific - if you like, more recognizable - context.

PERCEPTION (see figure 1)
I believe by reintroducing 'environment' at different levels, a strange form of perception can occur: one that might be close enough to the perception of reality, one which triggers the possibility to direct the listener towards a 'normal' sound perception. By intentionally using 'on-site' environmental sounds I recreate a sort of representation of a certain perception. Paradoxically, I'm not even aiming at reproducing reality. What I want is to create another condition where a listening experience may come about.

...To Be Continued...

CD INFO tmrx 'difficulté de comprendre dans le bruit', Selelektion 2001, SHS006, 8 tracks

Composed during 1996-2000 by Aernoudt Jacobs Original recordings made in Italy, France, Belgium and Germany during 1994-1996 Edited and mastered during the fall/winter of 2000 at Maxius Workplace, Brussels