Found Sound at Solid Sound by Eamon Wick.
Collected and curated at Wilco Solid Sound Festival and Downstreet Art in North Adams, MA June 20 23, 2013
This piece is split up into three different sections; each new section is a different day that we spent in North Adams, MA, and each has noticeably different thematic and stylistic elements of composition. The first part is composed of sounds I gathered at the DownStreet art project on the streets of North Adams. This section is straightforward and clean, as I wanted to use the clips to show how we moved throughout the day, a sort of aural picture of our experiences throughout the day, from the car radio on the drive over to stage-stomping dance and postcard slogans read aloud. The next section is made up of snippets from the first day of the Solid Sound Festival at Mass MoCA. The inspiration for the darker, more experimental style came from the industrial noises and various creaks, whispers and moans I captured at the "Boiler Plant" exhibit. Surrounding these noises are other sounds I altered, such as the pounding of "Earth Drums" embedded in a hill at the festival, a camera shutter closing and crowd noises.
The final section reflects the constant back-and-forth musical struggle between calm and chaos which I repeatedly came across during the second day of Solid Sound. An act called Oscillation Fumes provided chaos, with an incessant yet mesmerizing set of screeching analog synths complemented by a melodic (yet steady) drum part. Later, Low played at set that, at the surface, seems calm and slow, but as Rolling Stone writer Eric Danton stated, "seemed to mask a turbulence roiling just below". In their headlining set to close the night, Wilco provided both calm and chaos at the exact same time, inserting loud blasts of sonic activity underneath the otherwise laid-back melody of "Via Chicago". Although that song was unfortunately unrecorded, it served as an inspiration for this section, in which I attempted to recreate the idea and feeling of calm overlaid with with chaos, and the push and pull between the two.
For more on the various events at SOLID SOUND FESTIVAL
Photo: Rickshaw of Forward Motion, by John Stirratt & Chicago artist Chad Gerth
A mobile sound installation inspired by third world travel and modern forward motion