Sound Arts Lab residency: 5 questions with CRiSAP member Rachael Finney

CRiSAP Member, Rachael Finney (RF) sat down with Director, Mark Peter Wright )(MPW) to talk about her recent residency at the Sound Arts Lab in Struer, Denmark. CRiSAP has forged a new partnership with the lab through the launch of 89 Sound Art School, an experimental learning community for sound art that is participant-driven and rooted in transdisciplinarity and co-learning.

MPW: Can you tell me about your recent residency at 89 Art School in the Sound Arts Lab, Struer, Denmark? What project were you developing whilst there?

RF: I arrived in Denmark off the back of another month-long residency in Latvia where I had been working extensively with reel-to-reels. So, in Denmark I wanted to shift my thinking towards cassette tape. I was fortunate to stumble across a wealth of blank cassettes whilst exploring Struer which solidified my intentions to work purely with cassette. Working with two cassette recorders and two C90 cassettes, I wanted to practice these medias as compositional tools, recording devices and playback forms. Working with a DX7 and the lab's grand piano, and starting with one tape recorder, I began to record long improvisational pieces. These improvisations would then be played back through the recorder as a partner to a second improvised performance that was recorded using the second tape recording, and so on until both sides of the cassette were completed. I created several tape works of different durations using this process. The piece is then played back on the very tape players used to record, creating a kind of closed loop where all that has been used is tape and recorder. Each tape sits as both a standalone recording and part of a larger ensemble work for tape.

MPW: What is it about analogue formats such as tape that inspires you?

RF: I prefer the tactility of working with tape. There is something about being able to make a physical cut that fascinates me about tape - there is no ‘undo’ function. Of course you can splice tape, but the cut remains. I am not particularly inspired by DAWs (digital audio workstations). With tape you are forced to edit through listening. My practice is very process driven and I like to work from limitations towards possibilities rather than the other way around. I am also interested in the spatial quality of working with physical media.

MPW: Can you describe some of the processes and experiments you undertook whilst at the Sound Arts Lab?

RF: Working with only two tape recorders was a useful exercise in working within and through limitations. When playing back recorded material, I became interested in how the physical placement of the tape players created different listening experiences. The Sound Art Lab is a large building with several floors and long corridors. Experimenting with the natural acoustics of the site, I explored composing and recording with space in mind. For example, how does the work change when the players are in close proximity to each other, or what occurs, or changes in the listening experience when the players are at a distance from each other. What became interesting to me is how through these medias you can rethink the listening experience via the very media in which you have composed and recorded the work. One moment you are recording and the next you’re playing back on the apparatus you wish to present the work. I enjoy that immediacy.

MPW: The residency is set within an experimental sound art learning community with participants (students). How did you engage with participants as part of your process?

RF: We had weekly sessions where we would discuss and experiment with various ideas related to recording, listening and experimental composition. During our first session together, we introduced our practices and research interests and through that we decided as a group what we would focus on. We had a set of provocations that we would respond to over the weeks culminating in a work in progress sharing. In addition, I was able to speak with participants on a one-to-one basis and explore their work and interests. It was an incredibly rich experience as every participant had such fascinating practices; to sit and discuss sound, listening, composing, recording, world building etc, in a focused way, was very energising.

MPW: What's next for this work?

RF: The work is now being developed into a larger tape ensemble piece. Recently, I have been experimenting with adapting tape duration and making cassette loops to create different rhythmic moments in the work. A version of this will be performed in April at TACO! in London with artist Anneke Kampmann.

Read more about Rachael’s research here. To keep in touch about this or any of CRiSAPs research activities and events, join our mailing list and follow us on Instagram.