Can Sticks Break Cultural Fences?

Can Sticks Break Cultural Fences? was conceived one day when I picked up a stick and started grazing it against a fence nearby. Since there are a great variety of different fences including wooden, hedges, and metal fences, I found that each fence had it's own unique timbre. Depending on the size a different tone or timbre was produced.

It took about two weeks to make my way throughout Miami and find many fences of different shapes and sizes. Also, there was a lot of obstacles including very windy days, traffic and other things that muddled literally 100's of recordings of different fences I did. I was however finally able to get a decent amount of fences to make the piece work.

The piece is an exploration of these different and unique timbres. It uses the concept of Music Concrete, the idea that sounds outside the normal instrumental realm can create music. As the piece is made electronically, there is obviously no score. One can hear an element of form in the piece however, as fences and sounds don't just appear once, rather many times.

Can Sticks Break Cultural Fences? is so named because of the diversity that exists in Miami. As with the many different fences that can be seen in any neighborhood, so is the diversity of people groups in Miami. So this was sort of a representation of the cultural melting pot that is Miami.

Enjoy!

Can Sticks Break Cultural Fences?

Reminds me so much of Cages early percussion music - some of the stuff he did with Harrison in the 40's. I wish I could explain why. One question early on you get this popping sound. Is that intentional. Otherwise a great piece. And your description of how you got to it funny.

Interesting idea. The sound almost reminds me of the chains on rollercoasters and how they click rapidly when you ascend up an incline! Very fascinating.

That title is fantastic. One thing I like about it is the irony that children are typically the ones to run sticks along fences and cultural barriers don't exist so much to them. What wisdom do children offer? Will younger generations be able to break down the fences that their elders have constructed?

Your recordings are extremely clear and well-balanced (the mix is good and the placement of the sounds seems very natural). I do hear what I think is wind in some of the recordings (that's probably the popping sound that CO mentioned), but it adds some color and charm. The overlap of sounds is very fluid, except maybe between 3:55 and 4:04.

I enjoyed listening to all the fence sounds (especially as they overlapped) and imagining what type of fences they were, as well as how fast you were moving while recording the sounds :P What is that fence that comes into its own around 3:22? It almost sounded like rustling leaves. My favorite part was from roughly 5:13 to the end, where higher registers appear and more sounds overlap.

I started to be reminded of roller-coasters as well! But mostly of fences.

Nice work! Is this going to be played at any concert?

This is fascinating indeed. I do hear the rollercoasters too, but mostly it sounds like someone walking, or running (like BO said) sticks along fences.

Or as a kid I liked to add a card or a branch to the frame of my bicycle so that it hits the spokes of the wheel. It sounded like a motor, or, when higher pitched, like a cricket. It also sounds like someone pulling a large branch of wood over the pavement.

But all these running or walking sound come with a kind of regularity. There is a bit of interplay between the regular and irregular sounds, but I could imagine that you could have done more with rhythmical themes. But maybe this is not the issue in music concrete?

But because of all the youth-associations it sounds really playful. :D

Hmm, I guess it can bring up the idea of rollercoasters, I must admit that wasn't what I was going for, but okay! I never thought about it in a child's way, that brings up a very interesting point to the whole work. Thanks guys for the reviews.

this all creates a very smooth density, that waves away the fences.

Unique, for sure.

I don't really have much to say about this, except that the sounds do overlap perfectly.

It's FAR from my personal definition of music, so... I admire your technical abilities of recording and editing. xD

I love it! It's so... unique. Definitely a favourite of the "alternative" style of music. This could easily be combined into another song and give it an industrial flavour. Good!