This first class was a general introduction to the module and what we are expected to produce by the end of it, and with my understanding of multichannel works being very small there was a general excitement about a new way of working with sound as a means of consuming and creating. The class was focused on compositional differences between multichannel and working for stereo, giving examples of songs with interesting stereo fields and creating a baseline to start thinking about how speaker systems can create interactions between the speakers, how sound is percieved and how to compose based on less traditional “musical” elements and think more to do with spectrum and movement of sound. Something I found particularly interesting that was brought up was the idea of Diffusion based composition, where the “performance” element of the piece is splitting and unionising the sound within the stereo field (which would also be possible with more speakers, but stereo is the example we were given).
My immediate ideas during this class was regarding the Phil Niblock tribute I saw last year in Goldsmiths, where the multichannel setup was used as a means of compeltely maximizing the sound, which made walking within the space noticably transform the sound as the harmonics would change depending on where you stood, and creating this aural sweet spot around the center of the circle where the sound was unbelievably rich in scope. I was thinking a similar maximalist approach would suit the sounds I usually enjoy but multichannel feels as if there is more possibilities I might miss out on then, such as stark gaps in space, extreme differences in sound (pitch, timbre, ect), experimenting with replicating real world space with emulation of distance, experimenting with perception based on distance to speakers and achieving a “sweet spot”, there’s kind of too much possible to kind of just do loud monolithic loud sounds and sit in the middle. Will take further sessions to figure out what I would like to do with my piece.