Grunt (noun): a word typically defined as “a low, short guttural sound made by an animal or a person.” The sound is defined by its primitive connections, and like many of the endless verbalizations that the human voice can create, it exists within the space outside of our modern semantics. Despite this evolution of human vocal sophistication, there is still a primal harmony found within those tones that is still mysterious and appealing. Strangely enough, humans have often explored those verbal harmonies within the creation of music. After all, the human voice does not need words to sing. The voice of an instrument does not either. The space between the words, it seems, contains both our primitive grunts and our capacity to love music (CT Scramble 2018)
This particular piece from Piotr epitomizes all that and more. Piotr was trying to explore those spaces between the semantics and narratives that are created with traditional music, employing both his own voice and voices of others then sonically manipulating them into something entirely different and new. This is immediately noticeable with the explosive distorted drone sound which then morphs into this interesting but intense flickering glitch. It almost sounds like someone trying to tune in an old tv set in fact it reminded me of an old set of mine where you could manually change stations with button on the front the days before remote. Often changing stations would affect the sound you would find yourself picking up bright glitch sounds and distortions. The song seems to adopt this frequently throughout the whole arrangement as it submerges the many textures of tones clear fully entwining them together like a collage.
There also seems to be a real emphasis behind field recordings in this production. There are a lot of recorded water elements that break up the monotony of the glitches and drones adding some softer and more pleasant textures for the ears. If I had to guess recordings of water swirling inside a glass or even the mouth maybe even water being poured from a device or even being spat out. I know that Piotr’s creative narrative for both this song and the album was based around the human voice so it is not too inexcusable to think that may have been how those sounds were created. Something else that intrigued about this song was what sounds like teeth chattering which is introduced halfway through the track. Although I found out that the sound was way more provocative it is actually a sex toy which sounds very much like the human throat which he squished into the microphone and sampled it.
Listening to the song I was really beginning to notice what I thought was a lot of modulation going on. Example the sound near the end of the track that almost sounds like something of an eighties arcade computer game. There are also other sounds like something chipping away repeatedly at a piece of wood like a woodpecker and honestly have no idea what that sound could be. Then there are those glitch drill like sounds breaking up the harmony of the arrangement.The whole song almost radiates classic Minimalism mixed with Musique Concrete infused with a modern twist of Drone and Glitch music.
Now I am aware that Derek uses Ableton live with his productions which is his main DAW so there are endless number of tools he could have used to shape sounds. Tools like one of the gates could have been used to create some of the stutter effects there is also a lot of heavy chopped editing and rearranging and I think this is the more likely way he created the glitch and to be honest many of the other sounds from recordings. A kind of cut and paste method something Piotr experimented with early on in his career. He was heavily influenced by artists like Meredith monk who he interned for and John Cage so when listening to songs like this you can easily see why. I think although this song is mostly made up of noise Piotr was clearly not trying to create sounds that were harsh or brutal, he was aiming to leave the listener empowered rather than insulted. Honestly, I believe he achieved that yes there are violent distortions at points but the overall sound I am happy to admit did leave me empowered in fact it was quite pleasant.
Piotr seems to keep his equipment pretty minimal a Neumann KMS microphone.
https://en-de.neumann.com/kms-105
Radial (c74 software) which I imagine is some max for live patch or instrument and Ableton live running on an Apple MacBook pro and an audio interface which I think maybe an old m-audio then again, I’m not hundred percent sure.There is something intriguingly individual within Piotr creative thought process due to the fact he tries to find new ways to reinvent his sonic capabilities. Which can be refreshing in an often-stale landscape. Whether that be the shimmering sounds of nature with huge reverb or Drone music each individual album of work is uniquely different to the next. Piotr certainly offers interesting alternatives to the abstract landscape of modern Avant Garde music (CT Scramble 2018).It is clear there is strong ethos behind the complexity of the arrangements and the polyrhythms woven throughout his music (Terhune 2015). If I was to describe Derek Piotr sonic signature or sound it is definitely sampling but in a rather none traditional way fused with modern electronica.
Biblography and Discography
[Online] Available at: [://ctscramble.com/2018/09/19/interview-derek-piotr/][Accessed 4th November 2019]
[Online] Available at: [https://vimeo.com/285629917] [Accessed 5th November 2019]
[Online] Available at:[https://igloomag.com/reviews/derek-piotr-bahar-bit-phalanx] [Accessed 5th November 2019]
Image [Online] Available at: [https://derekpiotr.bandcamp.com/album/grunt] [Accessed 5th November 2019]
[Online] Available at: [https://calipermusic.blogspot.com/2018/09/derek-piotr-interview-new-album-grunt.html] [Accessed 4th November 2019]
[Online] Available at: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8VsNhL3FnM][Accessed 4th November 2019]
