DAVE PHILLIPS – Mutations 6 & 7 CS + Zine

An hour and a half of new exhilarating sound design and immersion from a modern master. Taking previously explored ecologically conscious themes forward, past polemic into something extraordinary.

Artwork for both the o-card and the accompaniment are individual pieces from the artist Brandon Ballengee.

Pro-dubbed c90 sleeved within an o-card, along with an 8 page text accompaniment, housed within a silk-screened black envelope.

two 45 minute pieces offering total immersion in a new chapter of dp’s field recordings mutations series. with stunning artwork by brandon ballengée, a 12 page booklet elaborating on the mutations idea. packaged in a printed envelope. edition of 100.

the idea:

field recordings made in national parks, nature reserves and other non-human habitat, mostly of insects, frogs and other small creatures, often in hot (tropical or desert) climates, are slowed down/time-stretched/pitched 50 – 99 %, some are reversed. no electronic sound sources are used.

slowed down field recordings play with time-space dimensions. related to the size of most of the creatures recorded, this game arises: ‘how would i hear insects if i were an insect?” this can expand to “how would i hear/perceive the world if i were an insect (amphibian, avian etc)?’.

since I can’t shrink humans I have to blow up animal recordings. the ratio with which I do this is all but scientific, and far from realistic: a human weighing 60 kg and an insect weighing 1 or 2 grams would result in conversion rates of 30’000 to 60’000 %. audio treated that way would be largely inaudible. yet audibility of the treated files is key. but this also isn’t an exercise in rationality. rather, it’s an exercise in empathy.

altering time-space plays with relations and perceptions of size, speed, frequency, light, sound etc. imagine being an ant in a forest. a beetle in a desert. a fish in the ocean. you in relation to the universe. and how that sounds.

these are starting points. just changing dimensions, suggesting different possible parameters. and trying out different ways of combining them.

perception changes through immersion – being part of something.

de-anthropo-centralise.

dp

And a word from the american south:

This Is Critical Listening. Immerse. Be Reverent. Commit. Do As Instructed, Play Loud!

Mutations 7: Difficult. Building. Light Shining Through An Open Field Within A Rain Forest. Deep. Primal. Feeding. Natures Curtain. Recover. Spirit. Focus. Swell. Honest. Pay Attention. Endless Sacrificial Tunnel. Asking. Hollow. Pitched Vibration. Textured Dimensional Layers. Organic Frequency. In Tune. Important. Want. Air. Balance. At Depth Echo. Radiant Cycle. Wander. Decay. Ravenous. Impending.

Mutations 6: Tense Groan While In Dream State. Insect Ancestor Vision Quest. Tapped Night Heat. Extinct Veil Of Heavy Yearning Emits Evolution Towards Landscape Of Aquatic Eclipse. Distant. Being. Cadence Sub Resonance. Shadowed Sensory Scope. Thrum. Surrounded. Never. Selfless. By Design. Clarity. Need. Tantrum of Social Intent. Absolute. Destroy. Reveal. Circulatory Modulation. Elemental Fracture Perceived Through Time Fragmentation. Gift. Fairness. Profound Unfolding Internal Chasm.

-J. M. Borer