Melbourne’s Atherton Gardens must have made quite an impression on French sound artist Cedric Peyronnet (Toy Bizarre) on his last visit to Australia, to the extent that they now form the basis for this ambitious sound project that will take him into March 2010. Live he’s renowned for his intense, visceral yet highly organic approach, yet he’s also able to operate with a subtle beauty and deftness of touch, something that is highlighted to an even greater extent on disc. This project is really intriguing, comprising of a mini cd a month, for 12 months, each with a 12 minute sound piece. It began on the 12th of April 2009 and will run until the 12th of March 2010. Whilst this in itself is pretty interesting, the works are based on observations and data reported to Peyronnet by Jude Anderson (seehere) about a one metre square space in Atherton Gardens. I imagine it’s based on the same space each month, that way the changes can be highlighted as the year progresses.
kdi dctb 216 (Data #1
The first disc is inspired by the circumstances at the garden on the 12th of March 2009 at 11am, and the cover offers us a blueprint for what Peyronnet had to work with, letting us know it was ’27 degrees, cloudy and unsettled with no wind, damp ground, soft air and a lemon smell from the citriodora eucalypts.’ These instructions, amongst others give us an elongated metallic drone that initially attracts other sounds like barnacles, building in intensity before subsiding to a warm gentle quite subdued growl that may have been a response to ‘a quiet floats,’ before evolving into what I can only describe as ethereal musique concrete.
It’s not clear whether he actually gathered some of his sounds from field recordings of the park while he was here in July last year for the Liquid Architecture Festival, though it’s highly likely that he did, as he has a history of sound mapping and possesses a real curiosity about not simply reproducing the sounds of a place but creating a more personal interpretation of the space. Yet his sounds really straddle the border between the organic and the processed, so often you’re not even sure what you’re hearing.
kdi dctb 216 (Data #2)
The second disc – thursday April 23rd 2009, 11am, offers ’25 degrees, dry air and a tin can skipping along the path, four holes are dug, flux flow, flux flow.’ Anderson’s observations are becoming increasingly open ended and poetic, and of course Peyronnet’s responses are nothing short of obtuse, confusing, yet somehow emotionally right on the money. He’s not creating a representation of how this 1 metre square patch of parkland sounds, he’s much more interested in how it feels. He begins with bells or perhaps processed wind chimes, subtly introducing new textures, allowing the shrill reverberations to subside in favour of a denser sound brimming with some kind activity, perhaps the scraping of bricks on concrete. Later when things become a little more intense Peyronnet creates a staccato hiccup effect that continues even when a high pitch ringing sound enters the mix, a sound that recalls the bells from earlier, book-ending the disc beautifully.
kdi dctb 216 (Data#3)
By May we’re down to 15 degrees and winter is knocking on the door of our small patch of land. Anderson meanwhile is getting a little more obtuse in her descriptions. ‘Fog, drift, quiet, a lone red vine leaf floats…falls, flurry and plummet from the golden ash.’ And we’re dropped abruptly with a jolt of digital feedback into this more glacial surroundings, with bird chirping behind a sharp metallic and quite thin oscillating drone. This piece actually feels sequential, Anderson’s notes like a running sheet which Peyronnet ticks off and integrates into his 12 minute piece. It also feels more explicit. Anderson writes ‘Ian laughs,’ and we hear laughter, or ‘Tom Digs,’ and we hear the sound of what could be someone digging into the earth with the shovel. Yet it’s more than just trainspotting as Peyronnet crafts engaging vital sound pieces brimming with life and personality.
Each of these three inch cd’s are limited to 50, though subscribers receive additional pieces. There’s more information at his website, which states that “this project, is part of the “in-habit # 3 – one square meter” residence and inspired by Gilles Clément’s “Jardins Planétaires”. The project will be presented in its entirety in concert in February 2010 in Melbourne in collaboration with Australian sound artist Jacques Soddel (Artistic Director of the residency), Jude Anderson, as well as other artists in Abbotsford Convent and the “English Meadow”site.”
It’s a fascinating and ambitious project, with these three pieces quite disparate despite the shared location. Turning these obscure and at times quite beautiful and evocative descriptions into sound offers not only some compositional guidelines for Peyronnet, yet really provides a curious context within which to understand and connect with his incredible sounds.
Bob Baker Fish
