Ed Devane's Blog

UpStart Audio – Campaign to raise public awareness of the arts in Ireland – my submission…

deved — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 23:35:20 +0000

Guided by Statistics – Ed Devane by UpStart

This is my submission for UpStart, an apolitical movement which ran with recent general election campaigns in Ireland. The visual aspect of the campaign consisted of 1,000 posters, designed by 500 Irish visual artists/ graphic designers/ photographers / poets, which were posted on lamp and sign posts around Dublin over the duration of the political campaigns.
The audio aspect of the campaign is primarily SoundCloud based. A cross-section of Irish musicians are represented here:

http://soundcloud.com/upstart-1/sets/upstart-music

My submission, which is the audio half of the image in the post below this, originated from transcoding statistical graphs plotting Ireland’s seeming move towards economic entropy.

Perhaps the peaks of national debt and troughs of employment will combine to create overtones of creativity and hope, and these seemingly dismal times will be the dawn of better times. The alternatives are all too likely to happen so I won’t write about them. Happy thoughts!

Financial blackhole statistics make vibrating image

deved — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 19:06:00 +0000

“Our Statistics”

Take a bunch of statistical graphs showing Ireland’s move into financial dystrophy, layer them into an image in photoshop, convert the result into an audio file, then open that audio file in a program that shows an FFT frequency domain view, screen grab the result, bring it back to photoshop and…you end up with something quite unexpectedly beautiful. Considering the sound this image represents is white noise without any redeeming qualities I am pleased with how it eventually turned out.

Interview on RTE Lyric FM – Bernard Clarke’s NOVA show

deved — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 00:26:00 +0000

I was interviewed by (contemporary music show) NOVA presenter Bernard Clarke in Eason’s Cafe on O’Connell St, Dublin early in January. Stop/Run was featured on the show a couple of weeks later, with excerpts from the interview and pieces by Niamh de Barra, Eoin Smith and Brian Conniffe.

The show itself doesn’t seem to be archived yet but you can now hear the unedited recording of the interview here, where I em, kinda, eh talk about, em, the…Stop/Run…eh

http://www.rte.ie/podcasts/2011/pc/pod-v-16011117m15snova.mp3

Room Full of Empty People EP now available

deved — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 12:34:00 +0000

My new EP, “Room Full of Empty People” is now available on Takeover Records through Juno Digital. Four tracks of agitated dancefloor music that will warm up amplifiers and eardrums alike!

Stop/Run opening night recordings

deved — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 22:04:00 +0000

Stop/Run opening by Stop/Run

Here are the recordings of pieces by Amanda Feery, Shane McKenna, Eoin Smith, Laura Hyland, Niamh de Barra, Brian Conniffe and Ian McDonnell. Enjoy!

Stop/Run jam with Ed Devane, Paul Rowan, Dennis Cassidy, Regan O’Brien and Keith Lindsay

deved — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 20:42:00 +0000

Stop Run- jam with Ed, Paul, Regan, Keith, Dennis 17-12-10 by Stop/Run

This recording was made the day before I took down the Stop/Run exhibition. After days of half-heatedly trying to wire up an Arduino board to drive the solenoids in my bar instruments, and generally being exhausted from the work involved in getting the show together, just before this recording was made I finally had energy to set it up to play some music. That was of course the point in making the instruments!

It was good craic playing with Dennis Cassidy (percussionist extraordinaire), Paul Rowan (a.k.a. Bluefood, who did some remixes of the opening night recordings which I will post up soon), free vocalist Regan O’Brien and Severed Head gallery co-curator and sound designer Keith Lindsay. Each player moved from between instruments as they saw fit; I vacillated between playing instruments and working the mixer (which by now is really my main instrument).

Stop/Run videos

deved — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 20:09:00 +0000

Pre-show practice of Niamh de Barra’s conmposition. Featuring Amanda Feery (tubes), Shane McKenna (holding the mic where and when needed for Niamh to record a loop into Ableton) and Fionn Wallace (middle stringed instrument, percussion).

Brian Conniffe performs his piece at the opening of Stop/Run. Brian’s piece features a recording of Simon Morris and “also incorporated is a treatment of material from coil cso 16, used in accordance with the creative commons license of that release”.

Ian McDonnell noises it up at the opening

Stop/Run: Ian McDonnell, opening performance from Ed Devane on Vimeo.

Pre-show practice and soldering…

Stop/Run set up / practise from Ed Devane on Vimeo.

Stop/Run photos

deved — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 00:03:00 +0000

This post will be followed by video and audio posts very soon. For now check out these photos taken by Aoife de Burca of my Stop/Run instrument ensemble.

Room Full of Empty People EP

deved — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 22:35:00 +0000

Ed Devane – Squib by takeover recordings
Ed Devane – 2Cme by takeover recordings

Here’s a couple of tracks of my forthcoming 4 track EP on Takeover Recordings, displaying two opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of how the result is achieved. Squib is a live recording essentially: the “white hot” version of my Squib series (a squib being an explosive device). The Squib project / way of playing / sample set has gone through a few different versions, and here’s a couple of them. This is the first version I recorded:

Squib (first version) by Ed Devane

The drum sounds are all derived from putting a bass drum sample I’d made previously through the image-audio-image process and editing the result. The sounds that result are gritty and biting. By using a crossfader to cut between versions of a sequence I can create a lot of variation while keeping within the groove. This one is from my Molten Membrane launch liveset, which favours a more zigzagged hip hop sound (you can hear the techno tendency creeping in towards the end though):

Squib live version by Ed Devane

2C-me started life as a stripped-back banger made for an A4 Sounds gig in a skate park in Belfast. The intention was, and usually is, to give the audience the fear: to make them think the walls were melting and that they would wear a hole in the dancefloor…it actually works sometimes if the conditions are right…

2C-me (live version 26-05-09) by Ed Devane

The title “Room Full of Empty People” comes from a mini-rave some friends put on to celebrate a couple of birthdays, in a remote part of Waterford. Floodlights cast shadows of giants dancing in the rain; I was nearly deafened by my own music on my own soundsystem thanks to some ill-advised multiband compression on the master channel, and the title was uttered by me late in the night to someone. I meant to say the room (in actual fact a tent) was empty even though music blared from it, but got it wrong. The phrase stuck though, and is an apt one for this release….

Ed Devane presents Stop/Run

deved — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 07:53:00 +0000

Stop/Run, 11-18 December 2010, Severed Head

Stop/Run is a show that will combine a number of interests of mine. Before explaining any of them let me first say that I am no expert (at anything)- I’m making efforts to learn as much as I can so that maybe one day I will be pretty good at a few things! Back to these interests, which deserve a short paragraph each:

1. Sound Design

First and foremost, this project is about sound – as a physical thing created as a result of various laws of physics in action, energy vibrating through substrates, be they strings, metal tubes, or air. This project requires me to make several types of instrument that I will then give to the composers to make pieces of music with. Here are a couple of videos I have made demonstrating how two of those will work:

String feedback prototype from Ed Devane on Vimeo.

Wind instrument prototype from Ed Devane on Vimeo.

2. Making things with my brain and hands

First the idea, then the action – I love following an idea through various permutations in my head before trying it out in real life. I’m in a good position to do this at the moment – since making my first zither a couple of years ago, I have steadily been buying hand and power tools. I set up my first workshop in a building without electricity or running water in December last year (the coldest one in living memory or something?), realised after a few days that the cost of running a generator outweighed any benefits and packed it in. Around the same time Lisa Crowne (mainly) and A4 Sounds were talking about renting a building to use as an art studio, so I joined forces with them. Eventually we found the perfect place in Harold’s Cross, where I now have access to an ever-improving workshop, desk space to design at, and sound studio to record in.

So it’s only really now that I’m able to do this project…

3. Physics / electronics

I’m learning a lot about the physics of sound by making various instrument types, and am thinking logically about how to implement electronics in the project. The plan is to utilise Arduino microcontrollers to control motors, electromagnets and solenoids via computer (most likely Max/MSP or Max for Live). Donal Holland of A4 Sounds is going to help me with that, as I haven’t used Arduino before, but am keen to learn!

4. Curation

The Severed Head gallery contacted me / us at Second Square to None to put something on a few months ago. This is more of a solo show than an SSTN show, but a lot of the composers I’ve invited to compose pieces using the instruments have contributed to SSTN is some way in the past. I chose these composers because they all have open minds, and a fairly diverse range of experience.

In alphabetic order, here’s a short biog of each:

Brian Conniffe

Brian Conniffe is a cross-genre, experimental musician who has worked with a long list of collaborators including Nurse With Wound, Suzanne Walsh and United Bible Studies. His work directly states inspiration from such non-musical sources as hypnosis, linguistics and ritual magick, making for a style which fuses the darkest psychedelia with disquieting ambience.

http://brianconniffe.blogspot.com/
http://soundcloud.com/brian-conniffe

Niamh de Barra

Niamh de Barra is a Dublin-based composer and musician. She works primarily with cello, voice and electronics. As a solo artist, she recently released her debut EP, “Cusp” on the Second Square to None label.

www.niamhdebarramusic.com

Amanda Feery

Amanda Feery is a musicmaker based in Dublin, working with acoustic and electronic music.Her work has been performed both nationally and internationally in the U.K, U.S, and the Netherlands by groups such as Ensemble ICC, Crash Ensemble, RIAM Percussion Ensemble, Dublin Guitar Quartet, and Orkest de Ereprijs. She was recently selected for a composer residency at the Bang on a Can Summer Festival, at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. She is represented by the Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland.

http://www.amandafeery.com/works.html

Laura Hyland

Laura Hyland is a performer-composer. In 2008 she founded the quartet, Clang Sayne to explore the boundary between song and improvisation. Under her direction, the group released their debut album, ‘Winterlands’ in 2009 to notable critical acclaim. She is currently developing a choral section for the group with fellow composer/singer, Judith Ring, and singer, Laura Murphy. They will make their debut performance as a sextet at Café Oto in London this November.

www.clangsayne.net

Ian McDonnell

Ian McDonnell is a Dublin based composer, producer and DJ. He releases music as Eomac, as Lakker with Dara Smith and he helps run the !Kaboogie label and clubnight. He is also an active member of Bottlenote Music, Spatial Music Collective and the Irish Composers Collective. Currently he is studying towards a PhD in composition with Donnacha Dennehy.

www.myspace.com/ianmcdonnellmusic

www.eomac.net

Shane McKenna

Shane McKenna (has to send me his biog, so I’ll write this for now) – Shane is a more than capable musician, but chooses not to make his own music in a standard fashion. Instead he creates animated graphic scores which are projected on a screen. He then invites musicians from all sort of backrounds and abilities to interpret the shapes, colours and durations in his visual composition. The instruments are being designed with the form types and colours consistent with Shane’s scores. As I build them Shane will design a score specifically for the show.

http://www.shanemckenna.com/2009/01/about.html

Eoin Smith

Eoin also has to send me a biog but his backround is in producing dancefloor beats under the Taper Jinx alias, and more recently in experimental turntablism. Eoin invited me to play an electro-acoustic piece in Maynooth College recently, where he is conducting a research PhD. As far as I know he intends on sampling the instruments and creating a bank of sounds to perform through his turntable technique.

http://www.myspace.com/303es

Which brings me to…

5. Creative use of limitations

I intend on presenting to the composers a wide range of sound making instruments and ways to control them – direct “playing”, automatic control, process points etc., but what is most interesting about giving a group of creative individuals the same brief is how each interprets it. This is something I explored before through the Second Square to None Ten Second Rule last year, where the only restrictions were that an audio file be original, exactly 10 seconds long, and in wav or aif file formats. This project is more complex than that, but comes from the same part of my brain as a way of tying together disparate (and similar) ideologies, approaches and styles.

The instruments will be capable of making sounds, but how the composer uses them is entirely up to them (although I would ask that destructive means are not used – I have not asked for or expect any financial help to make these instruments, and suffice to say on my limited means the parts I’ve bought have not come cheap!).

6. Visual form / 3-D / Multi-direction audio

As well as make sound these instruments will take a physical form derived in part from the function (strings and pipes = straight lines, speaker cones and soundholes = circles etc.), from space constrictions in the gallery, and aesthetic choice. The colours as mentioned before will be in part based on Shane McKenna’s use of the primaries, though I haven’t gotten that far yet!

I have long thought of audio in 3-D, visual terms: this show will display some of those ideas, but it’s something I will come back to in more depth in future. I will have sound makers placed around the room so how you hear the pieces will vary from where you are standing/ sitting/ walking.

—————————-

So there you have a summary of what I’m working at mainly now. I have an ep coming out on Takeover Records in December, am playing gigs with Meljoann and jamming with Fionn Wallace, Laura Hyland and Amanda Feery (FYED, or possibly AMFYEDLA…Amla-Fyed for an Arabic twist?) in the coming weeks and months.