Sound project

As explored in the previous weeks, sounds has changed and adapted in many new and sometimes, radical way, due to the invention of microphones, radio and other technologies that impact on the recording of sound/ music/ noises.
We were asked to conceptualise and create a soundscape that would provoke a listener into feeling, as well as hearing. By creating a piece of music inspired by a colour, I decided to take the listener on a narrative journey,  with the intention to also allow them to think and reflect with their own experiences with this prompt.

Before beginning any recordings, I chose the colour blue (a light blue) in which my sound piece would be based on. With that, I came up with words that I associated with the colour:
-calm
-dreams
-creativity
-freedom
-memories
-sky
-melodic
-content
-hope
-peace

Choosing three words that stood out and which I could elaborate on (dreams, memories, melodic) I started linking them together:
memories: the memory of something that is in the back of the mind- the subconscious, which links to...
dreams: in a dreamlike state, a memory is being played, which then links to the tone of the piece...
melodic: sweet, intimate, to relict the state of dreaming, which is fundamentally underlined by the concept of hope. 

With this mind map of an idea, I went ahead with planning the narrative order:
the start of a memory- memory of a song/ tune (father humming a lullaby)- listener/ the protagonist hums (voice and memory is the primary stage of a melody, which can then evolve)- evolve into instrumental music on repeat (piano and guitar- acoustic, to retain the dreamlike state)- fade out, stripping away the piano to have solo guitar- daydream of a new possibility about the future/ change of outlook in life (previously living in the past but using the past experiences/ memories to grow and adapt to a new creation).

Now with the story and shape of the piece, I went to the piano and composed a basic short melody, nothing complex, so to keep the lullaby sense. Then recording via audacity, I recorded the piano part, then then the two voices humming the same melody, not adding any words, so the listener can formulate their own imaginings of what the memory actually is (I liked the idea for a listener interpreting the memory as their own). Then I recorded the piano again with the guitar improvising a background layer, which then became a solo in a separate recording.
With the recordings, through audacity I altered the sound volumes, cut the unnecessary recordings, editing the clicks or other unwanted sounds. I noticed that there was a certain degree of static throughout the recordings, which I decided to keep in, even though it was not what I initially wanted in the soundscape, because I thought that it provided a sense of what an old recording sounds like, which highlighted my idea of 'the memory.' Content with the recordings, I then arranged the pieces in a chronological order based on my narrative layout.

Adapting into a wav. file, then uploading onto Soundcloud, the piece was complete- yes, with imperfections, however, the outcome hopefully prompts the initial meaning and thoughts that I wanted to achieve at the beginning of the process.