Handmade
Record / Performance / Installation 2002/7 (various durations)
Recording of 2002 cymbal
Extracts from LMC concert Live November 2007
Handmade is a cymbal, it is also a record. Using a vinyl-cutting machine the sound of a cymbal was cut like a record back onto a cymbal. Handmade does the opposite of what recording technologies do, which is to separate the source from the sound. Instead it marks, engraves & embeds it’s own sound back onto itself. The cymbal as a record attempts to provoke an emotional impact with a technology that has been around a long time, it refers back to the early experiments with sound inscription and reproduction and suggests a moment of childlike wonderment and innocence when an experiment first works, when Edison heard his own voice playback for the first time.
In 2007 I was commissioned by the London’s Musicians Collective to re-compose and produce and number of new cymbals, which I performed on three record decks at their 16th International experimental music festival in London, It was described in The Wire magazine by Julian Cowley as “…an intriguing presentation [which] tested the mettle of 3 turntables…. Conceptually resonant, this gritty piece had direct visceral impact. It reminded me of the those 17th century metaphysical poems that aim to stir the body whilst teasing the mind with a paradox.”
The first cymbal was cut on the handmade machines of artist Norbert Schliewe and the Cymbal was played by Rob Gawthrop. We were all quite surprised that we could hear the recording through the surface sound. With the push from LMC in 2007 Vicky at From the Edge, Leeds was kind enough to take on the project, over three cutting sessions we managed to find out what kind of cymbals worked best and refined the sound making 6 new cymbal records.