A visitor looks on while her friend, kneeling and partially obscured, explores the Rock hemisphere. The docents were quick to offer cushions.
EVERY WORLD by DONNA ONG (2019)
NATIONAL GALLERY SINGAPORE
LAYERED, EVOLVING SOUNDSCAPES
THE BRIEF
Donna wanted soundscapes to convey the character of her environs without using regular music or spelling it out with “real” recordings. She also wanted to minimise leaning on tropes, which for some of the hemispheres there were none.
NO CLEAR PATHS? INTO THE FOG
Instrumental music and soundscapes don’t tell stories, at least not the kind we expect at bedtime or over drinks.
On their own, they might inspire stories and evoke imagery and atmosphere, but ask a listener where the valkyries were headed or why the sugarplum fairies were dancing and you’d get a befuddled glare or inventive answer. Valhalla is not an inventive answer.
The visual is the same. Imagine macro shots of a butter knife of the slope where handle meets blade, the handle bevel, or serrated teeth. These might say “metallic” or “shiny” or "jagged” but not “butter knife.” Given a cropped view, we can see abstract properties, but we can’t name the actual object.
Without the benefit of a concrete, pre-established whole as an interpretive template, it’s hard to write parts. It’s easy to get lost. It’s like not knowing where to colour if you can’t see the outline.
My favourite way out involves abstraction, not because it’s profound or avant garde, but because it’s a surefire way to find unusual relationships between the subject and sound.
GENERATING IDEAS FOR AN ABSTRACT SOUNDSCAPE
Some approaches:
Distill
Sum up the subject in one or two words, then let these words beckon ideas. If not words, a mental picture works a treat too.
For the Underwater hemisphere, I had “otherworldly” and “deep.”
Donna and I also liked the mental scene of a diver cresting a marine knoll to the sight of a kaleidoscopic coral plain. I reused this mental scene for another project and wrote something completely different.
If I catch myself agonising over whether a word covers all nuances, I stop. I adopt one or two words and see if they lead into a flow of ideas. That’s what I’m after.
I can evaluate accuracy later. Having some target helps me evaluate my experiments.
Link properties to sound
Observe properties of the subject. They might be visual, tactile, olfactory (smell), narrative, or whatever else. Then link those properties to a sonic equivalent.
Mushrooms were a main feature of the Undergrowth hemisphere. Their roundness led us to imagine low “woooom” sounds, which is exactly what I ended up using.
If the subject has irregular edges, you might automate the level of saturation on a sound so the fizz and jaggedness of overdrive reveals then conceals itself.
If there are shiny elements or a lens flare, you might use chime-like tones with gentle attacks.
If you have organic elements, you might use MIDI expression to break discreteness and angularity. Bend notes. Morph a patch into the next with automation.
Mimic the real world
This is slightly different from #2 as it isn’t mapping a non-sonic property onto sound. Instead, it is applying existing acoustic parameters of the subject onto, say, a synth part or sample.
The envelope, timbre, rhythm, frequency distribution, spatial movement, register, and melodic contour of real world sounds are aspects to consider.
We wanted the Desert hemisphere to sound desolate. A hollow, howling wind did the trick, and I also sidechained it to a synth pad so it would swell with the wind.
Another way to “borrow” the timbres of a subject is through the use of granular synths.
DYNAMIC TURNS AND FAUNA SOUNDS
The sound design for the Every World hemispheres wasn’t fully abstract.
We couldn’t resist using tremolo-soaked guitar — an icon from Westerns — for the Desert.
There were also many chittering and scuttling sounds which were made from recorded foley, SFX libraries, and maltreated synths.
We also thought of introducing a contrasting change midway each track.
THE SOUNDSCAPES
You can read the descriptions and listen to them:
The GARDEN is delicate and busy. We begin with a dawn chorus filled with birdsong before dusk falls and ushers in the sound of a lone cricket.
The official collective noun for butterflies is “a kaleidoscope”
The CORAL world is otherworldly, reminiscent of komorebi, and expansive. Its dynamic turn is inspired by the view of a scuba diver passing over a sea cliff to the sight of colourful coral below.
Check out that realistic glint in its eye
The DESERT is a place of solitude, a crucible for the rugged. A sandstorm descends upon it midway.
A gecko overlooks succulents in a not-so-desolate desert
The ROCK environ is like a cavernous underground mine, filled with gems and their hard geometry. The acoustic perspective shifts from distant to close to convey expansiveness.
Bugs and bling
The UNDERGROWTH environ is secretive, round (because of the fungi). I made extra chittering sounds for a bug tea party. They turned out to be our favourites.
Don’t recall why we didn’t use frog sounds