Signal Chain — Season 2 — Episode 2
Signal Chain — Season 2 — Issue 2
Welcome to Season 2 of Signal Chain. This pop-up newsletter is a creative collaboration between generative musician Duncan Geere and photographer Oliver Holms.
We’re taking turns to send new work to each other. Each new piece is inspired by the piece before. We’re building a chain of influence together and you’re along for the ride. New instalments are released on the 1st and 15th of every month, and you can unsubscribe at any time using the link in the footer.
::SC-S2-E02::
Hi Oliver,
It’s so much fun to be signal chaining with you again! Since we wrapped up season one, I’ve invested a chunk of time in developing my knowledge of music theory, and I’m really excited about putting those learnings into practice.
A few things struck me about your image as I sat with it for a while. The first is the calmness of the image - the foreground is dark and still, it feels like you’re observing something dramatic from a distance. It looks a little like a thundercloud.
The second is that we’re seeing something that’s both beautiful and troubling. Light pollution is a real public health problem - linked to stress, headaches, anxiety and fatigue. It’s also deeply damaging to biodiversity and the natural world.
My track this week is an attempt at capturing this dichotomy of calm and harm. It begins softly, with an undulating generative melody punctured by percussive plucks, then builds over time into something more dramatic but still distant. Eventually it fades once again. If you raise the volume and listen on headphones, you’ll hear that the music is backed by a binaural field recording of a forest walk.
Last season’s music tech setup left a little to be desired, so I’ve set up a Bandcamp page that allows anyone to stream and download the music from season two on a pay-what-you-want basis. You can find all the tracks as they’re released - starting with this one - over here.
Happy snapping!
— Duncan