hollow (2018)

hollow was created in collaboration with saxophonist Kyle Hutchins and is featured on Binary Canary’s album iterative systems out on Carrier Records.

Three large PVC tubes (4 inches in diameter and between 7 and 10 feet long–they can be seen in the video) are amplified by placing a microphone on one end and a speaker on the other. The feedback this creates is stable only at the resonant frequencies of the tube. Using custom filtering software in the feedback path, the sounding partial of the tube’s fundamental frequency can be manipulated directly, modulated randomly, or pushed away from stable states causing it to fluctuate between partials. Linking the three tubes in series as one large feedback loop creates a chaotic system that flows smoothly through various tones belonging to the tubes.

The saxophonist places a small microphone inside different parts of the saxophone (mouthpiece, neck, body), slowing constructing the instrument as the piece develops. At each stage, the feedback properties of that object are explored. The direct manipulation of the saxophone keys changes the resonant properties of the saxophone’s tube, creating an expressive audio feedback instrument controlled by mechanisms ergonomically familiar to the performer.

Analysis

This performance documentation has some visual overlays of an analysis I did of the performance

Excerpt

Full Performance