Outside My Listening Ken?
Welcome to entry two of my sound blog! My task for this week was to listen to something outside of my normal musical preference. Given that I don’t know what kind of music I don’t listen to, my good friend introduced me to something called Dali Vision, music by Ari Finkel. This is what most people would probably call “experimental electronic” music, which is pretty different from my normal listening taste of top 40 hits and Christmas carols year round. I went in with an open mind though and found I actually really enjoyed it.
I listened to four songs, “The Field Engine,” “Dandelion Wishes,” “Hollows,” and “Evergreen Contrast.” On my first listen through, my favorite was the first, because it opened with this beautiful melody I found both eerie and a bit nostalgic, though for what I can’t say. It got me in the right mindset for these pieces by transitioning from traditional melody to the more experimental. There’s a creepiness to it which comes from the static and unnatural sounds played over the bell melody. I think the static gives it an old-time feel which is probably where the nostalgia comes from, but it also adds a technological aspect to the music. As the static gets louder and overtakes the melody, you can hear voices coming through occasionally, like flipping through radio stations. I think I liked this piece because I’ve always been a fan of sadder sounding music, but what surprised me is that it reminded me a lot of the soundtrack to the game “Sword and Sworcery,” a game I strongly consider to be a work of art as well as a traditionally fun experience. I did not expect this music to sound familiar to me, and if you listen to it you probably wouldn’t expect it either. I guess in a way this means I’m cheating, since this music isn’t that far out from what I’ve willingly chosen to listen to in the past, but considering I had no idea what I was going into when I started listening, I think it should still count.
The second song, “Dandelion Wishes,” opens with a much more harsh sound than the previous. The high pitched electronic sounds could have come out of a science fiction movie, but despite the objectively painful sounds, I somehow found it almost relaxing. The beeps and whirs happen almost rhythmically and there’s an echo to it which gives it a surreal dream-like feel. Its lack of melody or structure also makes it less distracting if I wanted to listen to it as background study music, like a white noise machine.
The third song has more of a melody, and has a relaxing echoey sound, but about two minutes in becomes disturbing as static again overwhelms the music. The title “Hollows” brings to mind Sleepy Hollow, so I began to associate the piece with Halloween. When the melody comes back it feels eerie now.
The last song has a lot of layers of contradicting sounds, which made it really interesting. This song has a guitar segment that is really pretty, but again falls between strange static and unnatural sounds. Unlike previous songs though, the melody doesn’t disappear under the white noise, but perseveres as it becomes more and more distorted. It’s only at the end that the guitar finally drops off, but it feels more like it was allowed to finish, instead of being cut off.
I listened to these pieces inside a fairly crowded and echoey space (I’m attending a hackathon this weekend so there are a lot of people around) which I know is less than ideal for analyzing new music. One interesting side effect of this though was that it was hard to tell in my first listen through what sounds were coming from the music and which were outside noises interfering. A lot of this music relies on contradicting sounds coming together, so a random tone playing in the background could just as easily be part of the piece, and there were a few times that I had to take out an earbud to check if what I was hearing was actually part of the piece.
Initially my favorite piece was “The Field Engine,” but after listening to them all a second time, I think my favorite is the last one, “Evergreen Contrast.” I’ve always been a sucker for the sound of a guitar, and the way it ends leaves me feeling both satisfied and wanting it to loop forever. I think it’s really interesting that I enjoyed this so much actually. The music is objectively creepy and unsettling, something which we discussed in class as being generally ill-received by people. However when the melodies come through they are really beautiful, and I think the way in which the sad and the eerie parts both contradict and complement each other is really interesting. It’s an odd reaction to have, but I can’t say I’ve never enjoyed creepy music. The irony is that I absolutely hate scary movies, but as I said before I love the soundtrack to “Sword and Sworcery,” and listening to the Apocalypse Now soundtrack this past week I found I also enjoyed the creepy parts (especially the demonic circus music at the Do Lung bridge). I really can’t explain it, but these songs have caused me to consider this about myself, which I think makes for a pretty good listening experience.
Take a listen for yourself: https://dalivision.bandcamp.com/