Outer Sounds 030 - April 2023

The selection for April 2023 is Sam McLoughlin & David Chatton Barker Environmental Meditation Music LP released by Hood Faire.

Environmental Meditation Music (EMM) is a collaborative project with the natural world. Developed by the artists Sam McLoughlin and David Chatton Barker since 2017, the project has collected many hours of recorded material, which has been hewn into a long form digital edition and this two sided 46min long playing record.

"Water and air dance and sing. A play of constant ecstasy. We are forever embedded in atmospheric flow. Space held by soft animation. The eardrum moves, mostly beyond attention, and so each leaf, each laughing brook, dripping rock and whistling reed. The same something, always different, forever variegated, changing yet remaining its self."

The instruments are made using a variety of materials, ranging from guitar strings, rubber bands, saw blades, clock chimes and jars. Many are amplified using contact microphones, often proving an essential part of capturing the frequencies.

For the record sleeves, a paintbrush was suspended on a branch using string. The sleeve was cut and placed upon a table with string passed around four bamboo canes in order to keep the brush contained above the card. Windy days were chosen to animate the brush. The brush was dipped into black drawing ink and begun at the middle of the card. Once the ink had all been applied the process was finished and the sleeve left in the rain for a few seconds. In total 305x card sleeves were created using this process.

Check out my interview with Sam & David below!