Place, Composition, Subjectivity.

During our session we recorded a brief phone voice note as an introduction to narration.

When listening back, I can hear a looming sense of self-consciousness throughout the recording – which I attempt to distract from by (attempting) humour. Having never worked with my voice in my own practice, the experience felt slightly unsettling and ‘exposing’- it was a muscle I had previously not used.

Despite the little time spent actually recording, I noticed that I became acutely aware of my voice in relation to my surroundings – the booming reverberation of the stairwell I was admittedly cowering under, the dynamics of my speech compared to the indistinguishable chatter of conversation around intertwining with the usually imperceivable humming of fans and electronics within the building.

If I were to attempt this again, I would perhaps enter the recording with a more prepared vision of my objectives and intentions. Yet, the spontaneous nature of entering a space and recording with only vague notions of what is to be said and how has (to my surprise) an irresistible appeal.

Where the studio environment or the DAW may often lead to detail-driven paranoia within its infinite readjustments and controls, spontaneous recordings in a space are a succinct encapsulation of a moment in time and place- whatever occurs or, doesn’t occur during the recording is, plainly, irreversible. Therefore, for me, the fleeting nature of this practice offers an exciting liberation from the over-processing and overthinking that so often plagues my work.