An Audio-Autobiography
Believe it or not, we are mimemic creatures responding to the flow (or disruption) of universal polarities and patterns. A babies breathe and heartbeat can be regulated by laying bare on its mother's chest; some MRI machines (witnessing from my own experience) play the fist five notes of Beethovan's Für Elise whenever an image is taken. Intentional? I don't know, but it does have a calming effect on the patient and I believe is tapping into something cognitively.
I hear rhythms, patterns and beats all the time in my surroundings; this often leads me to a musical mind catalogue where I match up songs with harmonic/theoretical similarities. Sometimes I record the environmental patterns and play with them digitally at home, other times I just sing along and jam with what the universe delivers!
Right after my brain injury, the amount of colour I was seeing (Synesthesia), triggered by auditory stimulus, was SOO overwhelming- eyes were best kept shut. This Synesthetic effect has faded drastically with healing, but I am still in tune! Furthermore, I have grapheme-colour synesthesia with not just numbers and letters, but also physical touch and smell. Colour echos visually when sounds are heard at certain frequencies, sometimes when in states of meditation, and alternatively, when caught off guard. I Hope you enjoy accompanying me on this new journey through sound.
Step 1: Learning to HEAR Again
©Kira della Stua 2015
©Kira della Stua 2015
This project began 21 days after obtaining a traumatic brain injury in May, 2015. I was still struggling with partial hearing loss in my left ear, along with severe Tinitus in both. Music that was new to me sounded like the clashing of pots and pans.
In order to gain back my hearing and sense of timing, I digitally deconstructed and recomposed a mix of music that I knew very, very well, prior to my injury. The mix encompasses the convoluted path through which I have I traveled while trying to learn to hear again.
Confined to the boundaries of healing, this project included great reflection and:
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tries to reconnect with the struggle & finding solace in NOT knowing what is going to happen; still in full acknowledgement of the emotions, the physicality, the disability, the technology, the consumerism, the image-ism, the breaking of convention, routine, family, the numbing and dumbing of youth and abuse waltzing - all to fill the voice that tries to sing within.
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the highlighted lyrics aid to the voice of my healing and observation, but at times also mimics and mocks the narrative or musical harmony ..... for there is always a Devil’s Advocate.
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tries to challenge the cultural/historical ideas of existentialism lyrically, and mixing worldly sounds to create unity.
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within its dimensions, this mix also pushes the boundaries between what sounds “comfortable", what is technically (in a digital sense) and theoretically (in a musical sense) harmonious.
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aims purposefully to play off the listener's own assumptions about the auditory journey they've been taken on
This is no road to assume.
Dive into the machine, listen to the beat and what it implies organically and otherworldly.
Seek the connections to what is familiar, like the beat of your heart, and as peculiar as the licks of Burmese Rapping.
INSTRUCTIONS:
PLEASE listen to this in one sitting (it is 60 mins long). The dialogue cannot be maintained if you stop and go.
WARNING: Please do not panic or think there is something wrong with your listening device during the playing of this mix. Thats the point. There was something wrong with my ears.
[This project was composed using the KidPix of digital mixing programs - Garageband. I was in no state to newly acquaint myself with any professional digital mixing programs during the creation of this project]
THIS AUDIO FILE CAN BE PLAYED & DOWNLOADED FOR FREE:
*LiNK TO DROPBOX FOLDER*
REMIXED MUSICIANS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER:
The Right Brothers, Christ Rea, Schubart, Drop the Line, The Pixies, Tom Waits, Punjabi MC, Suke Rock, Eddie Cochran, Moderat, Tabla Field Recording, Chet Atkins, Leonard Cohen, Al Greene, James Brown, Moby, James Carter and the Prisoners, Fleetwood Mac, Ofra Hazaa, Rai Cheb Khaled, Burmese Rap Covers (Artist Unknown - Bought Disc off Street), Blondie, The Pixies, Tabla Field Recording, Geoffrey Oryema, Depeche Mode, Nina Simone, African Tribal Field Recording (World Music ), Yo Yo Honey Singh & Neha Kakkar - The Shaukeens - Lisa Haydon, Lil Wayne Ft. Young Jock, Brenda Lee, A Tribe Called West, Mirwais, ELO, Enya, Blockhead, Sly Glizzy, ft 2chanz & ASAP Rocky, Dead Prez, Arcade Fire, O.T Genesis, Lhasa de Sela, Darbuka Sololari, Made in Heights - Murakami, Peggy Lee, Ten Years Later, 9 Lazy 9, Disco Tech, Galimatias, Feist, Wax Tailor , Wise Blood, The Chordettes, Chris Issack, Adele & Zalem, DJ Krush, Leisure, Lana Del Rey, Little Boots, Mike Myers (Austin Powers ) , Lyn Collins
READ ME
Step 2: Back to Music Therapy
This is an example of a tune I created in my head, and eventually began singing, while climbing a wall. I was trying to NOT psyche myself out; rather intimidated with my first bout of climbing, post injury.
With a little help of already known music therapy techniques, I managed to get a grip (in all senses) by creating a beat in my head. As with the beat, I began to climb .... and the rest came to flow. By the time I made it to the top, a musical doodle was mentally composed.
AUDIO/PHOTO © Kira della Stua 2016
A Rock Climbing Tune
波を折りたたみ
Step 3:
Broadcasted Live Collaboration streamed from Toronto's Junction, June 26th with DJ CENK 007. Female Vocals and Illustration ©Kira della Stua 2016