Unfamiliar, unforeseen, uncompromising. A dramatic message by two brilliant owners of discriminating ears and sharp brains.
Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes
The physical environment—be it an empty corridor, a crowded city street, or a vast open space—can affect and distort a person’s perceptual state. In turn, a person’s existing psychology can alter their perception of that same environment. This creates a dynamic interplay between physical reality, sensory perception, and psychological interpretation. In their collaborative album Host, the sound art duo of Anthea Caddy (cello) and Thembi Soddell (sampler) draw on this phenomenon to reflect upon how aural explorations of physical environments can be used to express psychological experience.
Host presents the culmination of these explorations, through the combination of field recording, instrumental performance, sampling and digital composition. Recorded in scientifically controlled spaces (including a reverb and anechoic chamber) and unpredictable natural and artifcial environments (such as inside a dam wall), sampler and cello interact to generate acoustically opposing atmospheres. These recordings have been carefully edited and interwoven with field recordings and textural sound samples to emphasise sound’s ability for psychological impact. As a result, Host is a series of electroacoustic compositions that define new, dense and sonically detailed environments, highlighting and shadowing the interaction between human psyche and the physical world.
Host was released on ROOM40 in 2012 and can be purchased here.