Please_wait

Composition by Eric Powell. 

"My goal in creating Please_wait was to embrace the theme of "obsolete sounds" on as many levels as possible. After selecting the sound of a Siemen’s ventilator–a rather rattly, yet sustained sound, I decided to use that everyday whirr to create a lush, choral, drone-y piece. I felt the best way to do that was to combine the fan sound with some kind of chime or bell. I happened to have a couple salvaged rotary telephone bells (another obsolete sound) in my studio, and I composed the piece using a now-obsolete computer and software system–a circa 2007 iMac running Logic Pro 8 with a c.2005 Zoom H4 as the recording device/audio interface. Obsolescent sounds meet obsolescent technology. 

"Please_wait uses convolution reverb to play the sounds of the ventilator 'through' the sounds of the telephone bells. In addition to this process, I used a small amount of pitch shifting and amplitude control to shape the piece. However, I didn't edit or trim any of the rec