Presented by Queens Museum and No Longer Empty as part of Mel Chin: All Over the Place, Soundtrack is a new work of collaborative sound art initiated by Chin with project curator Jace Clayton (aka DJ /rupture).Local artists, including L’Rain, DJ Aaron, DJ Ushka and Atropolis, and Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe have transformed field recordings from the routes of the 1, 5, 7, E and F trains into compositions that bridge the mechanical and the human. From Eastchester in the Bronx to Brooklyn’s Coney Island, the far West Side of Manhattan to Flushing Meadows Corona Park, the commissioned works will use the sounds of the city’s transit system. However, the artists’ interpretations capture more than sounds of the city. They weave its ethos and creative potential into one of the most practical components of daily life: the commute. An average commute in New York City is 40 minutes long. The commissioned works are woven into a single mix that extends the entire length of this daily route. The mix also features novelists Jennifer Marie Brissett and Eugene Lim reading from their works.
To continue the spirit of experimentation, recordings from above and below ground will be available for the public to use in their own mixes under the Creative Commons License. This aspect of the project offers an opportunity for commuters to creatively consider every clack, rush of oncoming air, squeal and swoosh, door-closing announcement, and overheard conversation, perhaps even transforming the sounds into their own creative output. For Soundtrack, the subway map becomes a sound palette, and commuters, potential creators.
Soundtrack is produced by DJ /rupture, featuring (in order of appearance):
1. DJ /rupture in conversation with Mel Chin
2. DJ Aaron
3. L’Rain (with engineer and co-producer Chris Connors)
4. Reading from Elysium by Jennifer Marie Brissett
5. DJ /rupture in conversation with Mel Chin
6. DJ Ushka and Atropolis
7. Reading from Dear Cyborgs by Eugene Lim
8. DJ /rupture in conversation with Mel Chin
9. Reading from Elysium by Jennifer Marie Brissett
10. Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe
11. Reading from Dear Cyborgs by Eugene Lim
12. Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe
i’m part of SOUNDTRACK, produced by DJ / rupture
grateful to Jace Clayton aka DJ /rupture for including me in this sound art piece called SOUNDTRACK, which is part of Mel Chin’s current NYC show.
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furthermore: i recently read — and highly recommend — clayton’s book UPROOT, an incredibly integrated overview, from rupture’s polymath perspective, of the interlocking movements of tech and global music.
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