Signal to Noise

One of my favorite instruments, the Yamaha SY77 can produce timbres that slowly change and mutate via FM synthesis, and recordings of these sounds formed the basis of what became 'Signal to Noise'.

Signal to Noise album cover

2004 | imbalance | ICM 05

1 Signal to Noise I 22:57
2 Signal to Noise II 09:31
3 Studies for Thunder 21:26

Recorded and deconstructed May-June 2004 in Berlin.

Formats: digital, CD

Buy at Hardwax

Signal to Noise back cover

Signals

The SY77 recordings mainly consisted of harmonic droning and I found them a bit boring after extensive listening. I applied filtering, pitch-shifting and processed the material using granular resynthesis, aiming to achieve erosion and diffusion of the sound, whilst preserving some of the original movements. The signal became the noise.

Thunder

The sonic sculptures in Studies for Thunder were created mainly by feeding short pulses of filtered noise into a complex network of granular delay lines. No natural recordings were used as source material, this is a completely artificial world. But, in a fascinating coincidence, I experienced more thunderstorms in Berlin during the realization of this project than ever before, the artificial storm took shape while I was listening to the actual storms outside my windows.

Signal to Noise back cover

Concert version

Studies for Thunder also exists as a multichannel concert version.

The photo on the cover was taken on February 1st, 2004 at Joshua Tree National Park in California, right before an impressive thunderstorm.

When recording the first sounds for Signal to Noise, I remembered the color and atmosphere I had experienced at this magical place.

I looked at the image again and again during the creation of this CD, and it became the guideline and inspiration for what had to be done musically.