Music Beyond Airports

This book doesn’t try to provide an in-depth analysis or a comprehensive history of the last 40 years of ambient music. Rather it provides a series of ‘provocations, observations and reflections’. Best of all is that it can be obtained as a free PDF download (see below) making it accessible so that more of us can read and consider its contents, and perhaps discuss them.

Music Beyond Airports is a collection of essays, developed from papers given at the Ambient@40 International Conference held in February 2018 at the University of Huddersfield.

As suggested by the title, the essayists don’t focus on the original Brian Eno recording but consider the development of the genre, how it has permeated our wider musical culture, and what the role of such music is today.

The pieces in the volume vary widely in terms of scope, subject, and voice, and – I think – sketch out a lot of useful topics for personal reflection and public discussion.

Here is a summary of the chapters:

  • David Toop: How Much World Do You Want? Ambient Listening And Its Questions

  • Ambrose Field: Space In The Ambience: Is Ambient Music Socially Relevant?

  • Ulf Holbrook: A Question Of Background: Sites Of Listening

  • Richard Talbot: Three Manifestations Of Spatiality In Ambient Music

  • Simon Cummings: The Steady State Theory: Recalibrating The Quiddity Of Ambient Music

  • Monty Adkins: Fragility, Noise, And Atmosphere In Ambient Music

  • Lisa Colton: Channelling The Ecstasy Of Hildegard Von Bingen: “O Euchari” Remixed

  • Justin Morey: Ambient House: “Little Fluffy Clouds” And The Sampler As Time Machine

  • Axel Berndt: Adaptive Game Scoring With Ambient Music

Published by The University of Huddersfield Press, the book is available as both a print edition (£30 from Gazelle Book Services and Amazon; currently only £26.70 from Wordery) and a free ebook download (PDF/EPUB/MOBI) from the Huddersfield University website

Don't come to see me, I'm not here anymore

I’m pleased to give you a new work using some sounds from a new Native Instruments Kontakt library I’m putting together for the studio. The work features some dialog from the Barry Burmange & Delia Derbyshire piece - There Is a God from the “Amor Dei: A Vision of God” work.

Barry Bermange said that he himself thought of Amor Dei as ‘rather in the manner of a Renaissance painting with the believers in God in the foreground or centre and half-hidden disbelievers looking out from shadowy places round the edge of the painting’.

VCV Rack reaches V1.0

Software modular VCV Rack just hit a major milestone – it’s now officially version 1.0, with polyphony, full MIDI, module browsing, multi-core support, and more. And since it’s a free and open platform, you don’t want to sleep on this.

VCV Rack browser

VCV Rack is an open-source software modular platform, featuring a Eurorack-inspired user interface. VCV Rack is available for Linux, Mac & Windows as a free download. Additional modules for the platform – both free and commercial – are also available.

Here are the features new to V1.0

  • Polyphony. Use up to 16 voices with the full flexibility of modular patching. Cables automatically turn polyphonic when requested by MIDI modules, sequencers, etc.

  • MIDI output. Control MIDI hardware with Rack modules. New modules include CV-GATE for drum machines, CV-MIDI for desktop synths, and CV-CC for Eurorack interfaces.

  • MIDI mapping. Control knobs, buttons, and sliders directly from a MIDI controller. Using the new MIDI-MAP module, click a virtual parameter and move a hardware control to create a mapping.

  • Module Browser. Search, filter, and view modules in your collection. Click and drag to directly place modules in the rack.

  • Multi-core engine. Use multiple CPU threads to maximize the number of modules. Accelerated polyphonic engines on many VCV and third-party modules.

  • Dozens of other new features and fixes, including manual parameter entry, module disabling, module “force” dragging, module expanders, easy zoom gestures, and more.

VCV Rack is available now as a free download

The Windsor Hum

"People say, well how do you like the sound? I say, don't move here".

For years residents on the west and south side of Windsor, Ontario Canada – a city of 210,000 people that sits just across the river from Detroit, Michigan USA, have been haunted by a strange, disruptive noise. It's so low (near-infrasound between 30-40Hz) that most people can't hear it. But sometimes it gets so strong that it makes your dishes rattle. Residents say the noise has damaged people’s health and quality of life.

Nobody knows what the sound is or where it comes from, but it keeps people up at night. It's known as the Windsor Hum.

Map of the Windsor area

Most laptops and most computer systems won't be able to make the sound audible so you will need a good pair of headphones to listen to the following sound which has been filtered to remove everyday ambient sounds in an effort to highlight the hum.

In Windsor–Essex County, there are salt mines, the McGregor Quarry and surrounding automotive plants, so Industrial noise can be common. For most people, these are minor nuisances and usually those disturbances follow predictable business hours.

The Windsor hum is different. It’s a low-frequency sound that has been plaguing residents of the southern Ontario city, and surrounding Essex County, since at least 2011

A Facebook Group has been created to coordinate reports and centralise information.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/WindsorHum/

United States Steel Corporation Zug Island

United States Steel Corporation Zug Island

The hum has sparked many conspiracy theories; from a PhD thesis that pin the hum on UFOs or covert tunnelling by the Canadian military.

Studies suggest a more mundane source; pointing to Zug island, an American industrial area located a few miles down the river from the bridge that separates Windsor and Detroit.

Zug Island is a highly guarded, smoke and steam belching, wasteland that is home to a US Steel plant owned by United States Steel Corporation and sits downriver from Detroit.

Authorities on both sides of the border continue to avoid the issue said MP Brian Masse (NDP — Windsor West). He issued a letter in late June to Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chrystia Freeland, but received no response.

Masse said. “We need an international agreement on this. There is no legislation in terms of (noise) enforcement capabilities. Right now, it has to be done out of professional courtesy on the U.S. side".

The lack of access, and secrecy has made it very hard to make progress. Perhaps the hum should be re-branded as The Detroit Hum to raise awareness about where it is coming from?

Health concerns

People worry about the long term health issues associated with exposure to this noise.

One study has suggested that infrasound may cause feelings of awe or fear in humans. It has also been suggested that since it is not consciously perceived, it may make people feel vaguely that odd or supernatural events are taking place (1)

"Welcome to Windsor, the coke is actually fentanyl, the kids are all on pills, and you'll never find a job but at least you can spend your entire cheque at the casino or get stabbed downtown!"

Windsor Hum documentary 

A Toronto filmmaker Adam Makarenko has driven all around Zug Island in Michigan and Windsor and La Salle in Ontario.

He spent hours in Delray, a Detroit neighbourhood near Zug Island. He's also been near the island, looking for answers and shooting footage. He describes the area as a "zombie apocalypse."

He's never set foot on the island, though.

"Homeland Security is everywhere, I mean everywhere. You have to be very careful when you're over there. It's heavily guarded. Why that is, I don't know,"

Video about Delray

What does this have to do with the Windsor Hum? There has always been the claim that Americans can't hear the hum. However, American's do hear it, but there are not many people living in Delray to complain about it. In the past the air pollution was so harsh that it drove many people away.

It was around the same time that the city started to neglect the area, and cut off many essential services.

Are there other hums?

Hums are heard all around the world. Some can be explained by the shape of concrete structures or large industrial complexes, others remain unexplained - like chasing ghosts. The website 'thehum' has a database of reported hums around the world.

Over the years, residents from New Zealand to Bristol, England, have also reported low, possibly mechanical drones, the sources of which are often never discovered.

Whenever I wake up it is there and it is unbelievably loud. When nobody else can hear it you think you are going nuts, and it just wears you down,”

says Simon Payne, 55, from Cambridgeshire. Payne is a hearer of the mysterious global phenomenon known as the Hum.

“I have been desperate to get away from it, so I have stayed with friends – and even moved house.”

Radio signals (including WiFi) can elicit an auditory response in humans. This is caused by radiant energy interacting with soft tissue in the skull that stimulates the auditory nerve. The effect has apparently been researched by the Pentagon as a sonic weapon.

Audio Description

What is Audio Description? Audio Description (AD) is like a narrator telling a story. It is an additional commentary that describes body language, expressions and movements, making the story clear through sound.

It works by adding an extra audio channel to a visual performance such as theatre, dance or opera, as well as media such as film and television for the benefit of people who are visually impaired or blind. The descriptive narrative to tell people what's going on is inserted during natural pauses between dialog, songs and sound effects. The commentary is often delivered through a headset during the performance.

Audio Description logo

Audio Description logo

Very often we can identify the availability of Audio Description by the use of the AD logo.

When adding AD it is important to deliver the basics. For example, for a theatre production you need to explain who is on the stage at any moment. Things like a loud crash on the stage or somebody attacking someone needs to be explained.

It is a common misconception that partially sighted and blind people don't watch films and television.

A survey carried out by RNIB (Royal National Institute for the Blind) in 1991, showed that 94 per cent of blind and partially sighted people watch films/television regularly (RNIB, 1991).

Imagine trying to understand The Matrix without AD. Compare these two versions of a well known scene in the film.

Where would I find Audio Description?

The short answer is: on TV, on DVD, on video, at the cinema, at theatre performances, in museums and also at sports grounds.

For television - in the UK

The Communications Act 2003, stated that ten per cent of the programming on digital terrestrial/ cable/ satellite television must be broadcast with AD by the fifth year of a digital license being issued. A number of broadcasters such as BBC, Sky, Channel 4, and most recently ITV have committed to providing AD on at least twenty per cent of their programming

Good practice when preparing AD

Pare down the words; only give essential information. If the 'phone rings, you don't need to say 'the phone rings' because we just heard it. It is important not to interpret the story for the audience. Don't detract from the story by putting your interpretation of the events into the AD - simply fill in the picture. Good practice means that the narrator becomes invisible after a short time and you don't even notice the audio description.

 A good resource for all sight related information is the RNIB (Royal National Institute for the Blind)
See also - Audio Description Association