Monitress

by Wobbly

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  • Streaming + Download

    Pre-order of Monitress. You get 1 track now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.
    Purchasable with gift card
    releases November 8, 2019

      $8 USD  or more

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    CD packaged in a six-panel wallet with artwork from HausMo Max and Amy Freibertshauer. Full color disc.

    Includes digital pre-order of Monitress. You get 1 track now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.
    digital album releases November 8, 2019
    item ships out on or around November 7, 2019
    Purchasable with gift card

      $12 USD or more 

     

  • Cassette + Digital Album

    C54 – Blue shell with black imprints – super-ferric stock. 2-sided 7-panel J-card with artwork by HausMo Max and Amy Freibertshauer. This is the catalog page with album information and artwork. To view the store page, click here.

    Includes digital pre-order of Monitress. You get 1 track now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.
    digital album releases November 8, 2019
    item ships out on or around November 7, 2019
    Purchasable with gift card

      $9 USD or more 

     

  • Full Digital Discography

    74
    releases

    Get all 74 Hausu Mountain Records releases available on Bandcamp and save 50%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of If Beggars Were Horses Wishes Would Ride, Monitress, AXIS, Colubrid, HausLive 1: Sunwatchers at Cafe Mustache 4/13/2019, DEViL WORLD WiDE, Death's Head Speaks, Optikk, and 66 more. , and , .

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1.
Instant Entity
2.
Welcome Away
3.
Respectables
4.
Solved
5.
One Trillionth
6.
Forced Affinity
7.
Best Necessary
8.
Edits
9.
Microaccident
10.
02:49
buy track
11.
Multiplet
12.
Information Free
13.
Monitress
14.
Operant

about

HAUSMO96 - CS / CD / DIG

credits

releases November 8, 2019

Performed and edited 2015-2018
Mastered by Xopher Davidson.
Design elements by Amy Freibertshauser.
Front cover and design by Max.

‘Monitress’ is a piece for multiple mobile devices, each one running a pitch-tracking app and a synthesizer.  Each is sent an audio signal, which the tracking app converts to MIDI data which is then used to drive the synth. Using an analog mixer, the sounds of one mobile can be routed / cascaded among the others.  Feedback loops similar to acoustic or electrical feedback occur when you close the circle.  The pitch-tracking apps are prone to errors, especially when presented with complex multiphonics or polyphonies;  they get quite a few notes fascinatingly wrong.  But more striking is the audible reality of their listening to each other.  Unison lines are an elemental sign of musical intelligence;  we are entrained to emotional reactions when hearing multiple voices attempting the same melody.  These machines may not meet our current criterion for consciousness, but every audience I’ve played this piece in front of quickly realizes they're not listening to a solo.

The result is best heard in live performance, with 3-6 devices singing along.  For the album version, studio improvisations on keyboards & touchscreens were recorded and then used to trigger an additional two or three layers of pitch-tracked response.  But there's still only one initial human performance, embroidered on all sides by detailed machine listening.  

The technology used to create these sounds existed before the mobiles, but this music would not have been made on earlier equipment -- it's a result of the relationship developed with a machine that is always present, and always listening. This was the project I dug into as we woke up to the true owners of these tools, a frame to make the relationship between ourselves and our machines audible while we think about the necessary steps to take next.

Live performances of Monitress frequently utilized the following iOS apps: Sonnus G2M, Midimorphosis, TC-11, Phawuo, GrainBender, Manetron2, PPG WaveMapper, djay Pro, Animoog, Virtual ANS, Cube Synth, microTERA, Tera Synth, iVCS3, iLectric Piano, NeoSoul Keys, ComboOrgan, Ondes, Ruckers 1628, VoxSyn, iMonoPoly, World Scales, Moog Model 15, ODYSSEi, M3000 HD, Sopranotron, tardigrain, Korg Module, Dedalus, SampleWiz, Shoom, Thor, Poseidon, bitKlavier, iSEM, SoundyThingie, DXi, Optigan, FM4, iCathedral, SingingFingers, Galileo, iMini, Stria, iPulsaret, 76 Synthesizer, iPolysix, Burea, Turquoise DS, SeekBeats, bent.fm, Alina, AUFX: Dub, MegaCurtis, MicroTones, Moon Beam, Photophore, Nature Oscillator, Samplr, Audio Reverb, Drums, Impaktor, Argon, AD 480 pro, Attractor, Movement I-V, Drumatron, Wilsonic & aardvark.

Thanks to:
Laurie McKenna, Bryce Recordon, Naut Humon, Jake Rodriguez, Drew Daniel, M.C. Schmidt, Matthew Patterson Curry, Laeticia Sonami, Thurston & Eva, David Behrman, George Lewis, Tania Chen, and Doug & Max.

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Hausu Mountain Records Chicago, Illinois

Hausu Mountain is a record label founded in 2012 by Doug Kaplan and Max Allison. We release music on vinyl, cassette, CD, and here on Bandcamp.

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