Der Stromausfall / Cloudbursting
During the Everything Without a “Real” is False: APA (aka Xuan Ye) Artists-in-Residence @ Being Generation & JØ (aka Johann Diedrick johanndiedrick.com) @ Friends-at-Home Mirco-Residency (2015.5.30), the two impromptu music performances Der Stromausfall / Cloudbursting happened as a result of unexpected electrical outage and fortuitous power-back on Dundas West, Toronto. Der Stromausfall was improvised completely without wall power. In Cloudbursting, the instrument (eventually the performance) allows the performer to use a one second vocal recording as a sound source for a tactile interface. When touching two contacts, thereby closing a circuit, the vocal sample is played back in a fluttering staccato of pitches based around a pentatonic scale. This allows for a wildly expressive sonic palette that is driven through touch between oneself and others. When the circuit is used in reverse, a group can form a connection together that results in silence. As they start to let go of each other, melodic voices shower down.
Limited Editions of 100.
A Side – Der Stromausfall – 53’59”
APA (Xuan Ye) = Voice / Mic Feedback / Objects (saxophone, melodica, bicycle, etc.)
JØ (Johann Diedrick) = Drum / Mic / Objects (branches, plastic bag, etc.)
B Side – Cloudbursting – 38’44”
APA (Xuan Ye) = Voice / Electric Guitar
JØ (Johann Diedrick) = Cloudbursting (Instrument)
Mastered by Alex Santilli at WSDG Philadelphia Recording Studio
Visual Design by Xuan Ye
“There’s a cathartic tension in the two artists’ shrill dialogues and abstract percussion on Der Stromausfall, the A side of the cassette…the visual experience isn’t necessary to appreciate the rich fervour of Diedrick and Ye’s collaboration—it’s gripping and challenging enough on tape…Cloudbursting rarely rests in ambient territories, as harsh and chaotic layers of melody and noise dominate.”
– Kristel Jax, Musicworks ISSUE 124
“The best part about dislocation from time is that sounds seem to have a new quality. They are more breakable somehow. A second can be burst and the pieces repositioned. Each piece sounds different yet contains all the information of the whole thing.”
– James Beardmore, Weird Canada