As part of their ongoing Sparkling Composers Series, Spanish label Lucky Kitchen have brought together sound artists with varying backgrounds to record, remix and reinterpret each other’s work. Humming Bird Feeder Version 0.2 is comprised of a stereo mix of Stephen Vitiello’s “HBF” installation that was recorded for New York’s Diapason Gallery with remixes from Tetsu Inoue and Andrew Deutsch alongside new musical pieces by Inoue that are based on the atmosphere recorded around a humming bird feeder.
Tetsu Inoue is a digital music composer who has recorded 40 albums for EMI, Caipirinha, Rather Interesting, 12K and most famously for Fax. He also has his own Otodisc record label. Stephen Vitiello has worked on a range of musical projects including music for dance companies, soundtrack work, installations and performed live shows as well as working with the likes of Scanner and Pauline Oliveros and releasing albums in his own right. Andrew Deutsch is a sound and video artist from New York who teaches Sound Art at Alfred University. He is also the founder of his own Magic If label and has released music through Magic If, Deep Listening Productions and JdK.
Vitiello’s lengthy installation piece “HBF” (identified here as “~”) comprises of a series of field recordings taken from a microphone inserted into a humming bird feeder interspersed with electronic interludes of gently drifting tones and small yet carefully constructed sounds that utilise space as much as technology. The overall effect is one of serenely calming ambience that, whilst being devoid of beats as such, still possesses its own rhythmic melodic qualities. Inoue’s remix of “HBF” (labelled “*”) is altogether more electronic, dispensing almost completely with the field recording aspect of the original and concentrating more on the electronic interludes. Switching styles every so often, Inoue opts for a similar microscopic style and has an abstract yet melodic and quite mellow approach. Andrew Deutsch’s remix (marked “%”) is also quite lengthy and utilises tiny sounds along with loops and elements of Vitiello’s field recordings to form a darker more ominous rework of the original.
Inoue’s new track, “@”, is a collection of tiny looped sounds and resonating tones that appear and disappear while the core of the track clicks and jangles in the background. Experimenting with looped sounds and partial snippets of other sounds, Inoue builds a throbbing abstract piece that is ultimately a quite unnerving listen. Inoue’s second piece, this time in collaboration with Vitiello and entitled “^”, is altogether gentler, more melodic and tonal, Inoue’s tiny abstract blips, clicks and weird looped sounds evident alongside Vitiello’s soothing melodic tones.
Humming Bird Feeder Version 0.2 is an album that, through it’s contributors, displays variations on a style presented in the form of ambience, abstraction and a darker minimal element across the space of just 5 tracks. Spacious and sometimes quite lengthy, each track is given time to unfold and develop. The result is a minimal experimental album that is well worth exploring further. Nicely packaged as always from Lucky Kitchen too.
