Like the crackling of a fire, the creaking of doors and the most ordinary noise become music and fall into electro-acoustic tracks

We tell how this trend appeared, and who writes electro-acoustic music.

^{Photo Luis Monse / Unsplash}

What is electroacoustic music

This is a genre of electronic music that uses various noises of natural and artificial origin (synthesized) processed by filters.

The genre has been around since the middle of the 20th century. Over the years, many musicians have shown interest in him. For example, the French composer Edgar Varese wrote the Poème électronique in 1957. In his work, he used the sound of bells, as well as a variety of rattle and rustling.

American composer Eric Chasalow used the recordings from answering machines and separate phrases from documentaries to create the track “ Crossing Boundaries ” in 2000.

Musicians creating electro-acoustic tracks mix noise, causing them to “flow” from one to another. For example, they transform a cough into the sound of a starting engine or turn car beeps into the sounds of wind instruments - by the way, Paul Koonce, an American musician and professor of music at the University of Florida, used Walkabout .

Most often, electro-acoustic tracks are played in the recording without the participation of the author-performer. Russian composer Artemy Artemyev, whose work often falls on the charts of radio stations in Russia, the USA, Germany, Spain and other countries, says that such music implies months of work with sound that cannot be done on stage in front of an audience.

Destination History

Electro-acoustic music is a development of the genre of specific music . The term was introduced by French acoustic engineer Pierre Schaeffer, who was a pioneer of the direction. Specific music meant recording sounds of natural origin - for example, dripping water, creaking doors, birds' voices - on magnetic tape for the purpose of their subsequent mixing. Mixing was carried out by speeding up or slowing down the movement of the tape in the tape recorder, and several different audio recordings were simultaneously dubbed onto one medium.

One of the earliest examples of specific music is the work of Pierre Schaeffer - “ Five Noise Etudes ” of 1948. The author recorded one of the studies at the station, so it includes the sound of trains.

In the late 50s and early 60s, electronic technologies came into concrete music, in addition to tape recorders with a tape, synthesizers were added to the arsenal of musicians and composers. So electro-acoustic music was born, in which, in addition to the sounds of nature, synthesized sounds appeared. One of its pioneers was the already mentioned Edgar Varez. In 1958, his Poème électronique was reproduced at the World Exhibition in Brussels with 425 speakers located in a special pavilion.

After some time, other musicians reached for Edgar. For example, the Maltese composer, performer and poet Ray Buttigieg. In his Probing in Space Oceans , you can recognize the sound of splashing waves and dripping water intertwined with the sound of synthesizers.

Interestingly, “electroacoustics” was also reflected in popular music, influencing the work of performers of the 60s. For example, The Beatles - " Revolution 9 " and Pink Floyd - " Bike " have various noises. Frank Zappa has written several compositions in which you can hear bizarre buzzing, beeping and whistling of dissected air.

Contemporary composers

Electro-acoustic music is written by the German quartet The Pitch. Its participants mix the sound of an organ, clarinet, double bass and vibraphone - a percussion instrument that belongs to the group of metal phones - with the sound of bells, the sound of heels, rattle and rustling. Their work can be heard on Bandcamp .

Another example is the Belgian composer Conrad Ecker (Koenraad Ecker). Last year, he released a new album - A Biology of Shadows. His compositions are reminiscent of a mixture of grime, glitch and ambient - and among the sounds used you can recognize the crackling of a fire, palpitations, rustling, rattle and human speech.

On March 9, 2018, their album, “Hidden for the Eyes,” was introduced by a Slovenian composer under the pseudonym Alapastel. In his tracks, the sound of classical instruments is mixed with birdsong.

Of course, we did not name all the performers in the genre of electro-acoustic music. If you have any favorite composers who turn natural and artificial noise into music, tell us about them in the comments.