Monday, April 18, 2011

'Was that sincere enough?'

Via TR, commenting on KM's post, the story of how Blood on the Tracks got made.

*

There's this bit:
Lighting was a big deal in the rooms. It was all about setting the mood for creativity. I turned most of the lights off. All was black except a glow over the flying-V mixing console. Once you blocked out all external stimuli and you were listening for endless hours, the space between the beats got bigger and bigger. You could hear inside the sounds all the way to their core.
And I found myself nodding. Oh, yes. Sound studios are magical in a way editing studios aren't. Editing studios are noise and repetition, they're flicker and blindingness. There's no spotlight and then darkness. There's no awe.

In sound studios, you're always on the outside looking in. There is austerity and exclusion (as with the image of Zbignew Herbert on the cover). You're always on the other side of the glass. It's cold. You might even need a sweater. There are mysterious words that you're allowed to hear once in a while. On the screen, the images play themselves out in silence. Sound recording is liturgy.

4 comments:

Fëanor said...

Zbigniew Herbert! Interesting how one never hears some names for yonks, and then twice in a row. I'm trying to get my hands on "Barbarian in the Garden".

Space Bar said...

actually, you're responsible for my thinking of him! so out of context, but that cover is just right.

km said...

Editing studios are noise and repetition, they're flicker and blindingness. There's no spotlight and then darkness. There's no awe.

Well, thanks so much for destroying my fantasy of sitting with Ozu, Bergman and Bresson.

//I'm sure there's some romanticizing of recording sessions also...I mean, listening to a guitar solo or a vocal track for hundred hours can be bloody joyless.

Space Bar said...

km: ya, i'm just hating on editing because it now gives me the heebies. it's how recording looks from outside and because i just don't understand sound.