the counterfactual mixtape

The mixtapes took an unplanned summer holiday, so this one has three sections to make up for that. Normal service should resume shortly. This one is quite intense and fairly noisy in places, but this seems apt for the material it’s built from.. [ rough content guide ] 0'00s - 4'10s concrete triggers 4'10s - 9'20s nighttime strata9'20s - 14'10s concrete triggers (cont.)14'10s - 20'40s meat market Concrete TriggersI've rarely use completely generative or random processes in composition, but they can be a useful tool for moving away from learnt patterns or to trigger ideas. My favourite approach is to set up systems that force me to respond to them, to tame wildness or to coax out things the sounds start to reveal. I used this method for these parts of the mixtape but also restricted the tools, creating focus through creative limitations. I've been selling a lot of audio equipment recently, and this has given me the chance to re-evaluate some bits of kit I haven't fully explored. This section was constructed almost entirely on a Digitakt II with generous use of modulation, resampling and its retro style timestretch. I set up a system where pressing one button would throw 8 layers of field recordings from my archive at me, all looping at random lengths (some so short they approached wavetable synthesis). After some time reshaping them with filters and other distortions I would then launch a new set of recordings, these being processed by the same reshaping I had already applied for some continuity. The recordings were all selected from a small bank so often the same source would appear on multiple tracks but with different processing. I recorded a long set of improvising with this system and then sliced it up into the structure you hear. (I've been listening to a lot of music concréte recently and this definitely inspired me to be more vigorous with my cuts, letting the shape of the sounds guide my editing decisions.)Nighttime StrataThis part is a work in progress for something more directly connected to my counterfactual sound research. Through a combination of electromagentic field recordings (using the wonderful SOMA Ether), contact microphones and acoustic sound it imagines a more than human way of sonically sensing the city. I've worked with EMF recordings on and off over the years but rarely connected them to site. Inspired by Christina Kubisch's Electrical Walks and KMRU's amazing Natur album I'm keen to explore a combination of the audible and inaudible sounds of one place at one time. What would a future be like where our range of hearing stretched up into the spectrum of wifi networks, security cameras and drone batteries? I'm in the early questions stage of this work, and this sketch was constructed from nighttime recordings made in Bristol where I captured EMF and acoustic sound at the same time. The composition combines these both as simultaneous layers, sometimes raw and sometimes using audio convolution, where one sound is shaped by the other. Meat MarketA family holiday in Burgundy led us to the cattle market at Saint-Christophe-En-Brionnais. This last section collects some sounds roughly captured on a handheld recorder of this intimate encounter with the meat industry. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dspk.substack.com

As the exhibition of my audio augmented reality piece Only Expansion in Bristol closes next week this mixtape is collaged from field recordings and music extracts that were created in 2018/19 as part of the making process. To create Only Expansion I spent time touring locations displaying very tangible signifiers of climate change - rising sea levels, collapsing coastlines, wildfires and more.This is probably one of the noisiest mixtapes so far, as it leans into the viscerality, decay and collapse that I had tried to capture in the audio walk. It takes a cinematic approach, shifting perspectives from the intimate and below surface level up to grassy cliffs and sweeping charred landscapes. Along with some wonderful vocals and strings from Sarah Anderson you’ll find early music sketches from the piece combined with a mixture of hydrophone and other field recordings from the coasts of Norfolk, Devon, Bergen and the aftermath of Californian wildfires. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dspk.substack.com

A more melancholic drift than usual, maybe a dream of a time when all the venues are closed and the festivals are bankrupt and we rely solely on the buskers. This mixtape includes multiple ‘duets’ created by combining captured fragments of buskers and street music performances (including some Holy Week processions as it seemed timely). I enjoy the idea that these performances were greatly separated by time and space and now hang together in one imagined moment. There’s also some extracts of small improvisations I recently recorded with my long time collaborator Sarah Anderson and some field recordings to build worlds around all of these sounds.No timeline for this one, but rather just a list of locations and material, but as ever it’s the space created by overlaps that really matters. Enjoy.April 2025 Contents -Bilbao Holy Week processions; Improvisations with Sarah Anderson, Walthamstow; Car boot sale, Lewes; Trumpet player, Mexico City; Arc welders, Mumbai; Acapella vocalist, Hong Kong; Oktoberfest choir, Berlin; Mahjong hall, Guangzhou; Muted bridge guitar sketches, Bristol.. and more.(and yes.. I did nearly name this episode Ghost Buskers) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dspk.substack.com

This month’s mixtape is now online.Around the back of Temple Meads station in Bristol there are rows of newly built office and apartment blocks. Whether it was unpredictable or badly planned for, the shape and materials of these buildings seems to be responsible for incredibly loud and intense whistling tones that occur whenever the wind picks up a bit. This mixtape features a set of recordings of this soundmark, combined into duets with woodwind samples I’ve been playing with (courtesy of Spectres by Slate+Ash). There’s also some diary field recordings from Liverpool and more sketches from work in progress music, all rapidly and roughly woven together. The track listing below is only a set of pointers, it is the overlaps I’m really interested in, where the combination of existing places create other possible worlds. ( I’ve also written a short text expanding my thoughts on these counterfactual soundscapes which you can read here ). Enjoy0’00 wind/woodwind duet 2’30 historial marker3’26 spectral rooms, Liverpool3’50 rowesound / spectral birds6’00 Catholic Cathedral, Liverpool6’20 Anglican Cathedral, Liverpool7’14 sketch 89 part 17’33 spectral birds, Crosby9’29 papermakers above/below water11’34 wind/synth duet 115’06 sketch 9618’45 spectral waves, Ise city19’34 slowect (sketch)20’00 travel plans, between Crewe + Stafford22’41 wind/synth duet 224’39 sketch 89 part 2 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dspk.substack.com

This first mixtape is an expulsion, a chance to clear both my mind and my hard drive. It’s a collage of small music sketches and field recordings, both from my everyday life and more intentional expeditions. There’s processed sounds here too, recordings that I’ve tried to x-ray, excavate or drill inside to find out what they’re made of. I’m weaving them together in a way that imagines my past inside different future scenarios and spaces. 0'00 Shinto shrine harmonics 011'10 Ham Wall Nature Reserve2'05 resonant mechanics 013'30 Ise City alley3'42 Bristol Cathedral choir rehearsals4'15 roof window4'46 cloud compressor sketch 015'52 baristas6'30 gutter drones6'45 ocean resonating through structures7'11 gravel bugaku7'43 nylon autotune 7'49 paper making hydro8'50 botanical garden9'07 waves through bells9'43 Broadmead, Bristol9'54 resonant mechanics 0210'23 bells through structures10'46 family piano, shinto drums11'49 salt makers harmonics12'24 Shinto shrine harmonics 0213'24 Frenchay common14'10 pulsar sketch14'26 Futami 16'18 cave flutes16'59 night walk17'20 Bath high street18'08 cloud compressor sketch 0219'47 stray emf This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dspk.substack.com