Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Supersaw
The ‘Supersaw’ was a unique sound waveform, created by Roland in 1997 for their new synthesizer, the JP800. The Supersaw layered 7 saw tooth waveforms, slightly detuned against each other to produce a thick and expansive sound. It was picked up on by dance producers at the time and became the defining sound of the Uplifting Trance era, being used on many of the scene’s most important tracks.
For me, it represents an interesting example of the role that technological innovation plays in catalysing a cultural phenomenon, echoing perhaps, the relationship between the creation of the electric guitar and the birth of popular music; or indeed the significance of producers experimenting with an obsolete Roland 303 sequencer in the mid 1980s, inadvertently giving birth to Acid House and the Rave scene. In the case of the Supersaw, the influence was confined to one particular sub-genre over the space of a few years.
It is this relationship I am interested in, specifically how this piece of technology and it’s sound has a history of powerful memories and experiences attached to it.
For this piece, a Roland JP800 will be set up in the gallery space, lit from above with a spotlight. Using the Supersaw sound, a chord will played by taping down the appropriate keys, ringing out continuously in the space: suggesting an infinite euphoric moment and reflecting the utopian vision the sound was so influential in creating.
'The world had opened up all around, the blank warehouse had somehow changed into a wonderland designed just for us, glistening with a mystic iridescence with which I hadn’t been able to see earlier. New world. New sound. New life. Everything felt so right. A huge, glowing, magical YES.'
Matthew Collin
Happiness Happening
In a similar vain as ‘Trance Nation Anthems (Disc One)’, ‘Happiness Happening’ treats the lyrics from the song of the same name as a form of historical artefact that illustrates the utopian nature of a recent cultural movement. The song - considered a classic vocal Trance anthem - contains lyrics that reflect the heightened sense of optimism in the scene, which to the sober eye seem youthful and naïve.
I am in the process of making some form of box with the lyrics cut out of one side. A strobe light will be placed inside, to illuminate the letters outwards. It will be displayed in a completely dark room, either on the floor as an object or as part of the wall.
I am keen here to explore the language of the clubbing experience, taking these garishly optimistic lyrics - stripped of their original musical context - and re-presenting them as a form of surreal, mystical object whose pulsating light defines the space.
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Trance Nation Anthems (Disc One)
WILLIAM ORBIT – ADAGIO FOR STRINGS
SYSTEM F – OUT OF THE BLUE
ATB – 9PM (TILL I COME)
BINARY FINARY – 1999
PUSH – UNIVERSAL NATION
MATT DAREY – LIBERATION
PULPVICTIM – THE WORLD
ELECTRIQUE BOUTIQUE – REVELATION
DELERIUM – SILENCE
SOLAR STONE – SEVEN CITIES
BOCCACCIO LIFE – THE SECRET WISH
STEVE MORLEY – INCARNATIONS
LOST TRIBE – GAMEMASTER
RALPH FRIDGE – ANGEL
TRAVEL – BULGARIAN
AIRSCAPE – L’ESPERANZA
Ministry of Sound’s Trance Nation compilation series began in 1999 at the height of the popularity of Trance. The release of the Trance Nation Anthems collection in 2003¾essentially a best-of-can be seen to represent the posthumous examination of a scene’s golden age, most tracks originally coming out in the period of 1998-2000.
Towards the end of the 1990’s Trance had grown in popularity, catapulted from its underground roots to become the defining sound of clubbing. Its growth arguably ran co-extensively with the success of the ‘super-club’: high capacity, big-room venues such as Cream in Liverpool and Gatecrasher in Sheffield-where the increase in crowd numbers and venue capacity was reflected in the uplifting, ethereal nature of the Trance sound.Perhaps more than any other popular dance music sub-genre, this vision of clubbing was inherently representative of the collective expression of an ecstatic experience.
This piece, simply displays the artists and track names in the order they appear on CD one of the aforementioned compilation, using vinyl letters affixed directly to the gallery wall.
I am interested in how the utopian character of the scene is contained in the names of the artists and tracks that shaped it. Of course, some may see the list as an abstract and random collection words; some may recognize one or more of the artists, or simply pick up on the fact that this is some kind of music playlist from the format. Yet for anyone who might have been involved in the scene these names contain a wealth of powerful personal memories and the display is a form of monument to a lost golden era. And yet it is unlikely many (if any) of the viewers of this work will fit into this final category. It is partly this condition I am interested in. When stripped of all contexts, most viewers are indeed presented with an alien list and left to build connections between them. What currency do they have in this new context? How much of the original sense of utopia is crystallised in these words.
'Enchantment entails a state of wonder, and one of the distinctions of this state is the temporary suspension of chronological time and bodily movement . . . To be enchanted, then, is to participate in a momentary immobilizing encounter; it is to be transfixed, spellbound . . . You notice new colours, discern details previously ignored, hear extraordinary sounds, as familiar landscapes of sense sharpen and intensify.'
Jane Bennett, The Enchantment of Modern Life, p5
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