Cleartones Notifications

Last year I launched Cleartones, a set of minimalist ring tones which will not make you look stupid when your phone rings. I’ve been using the Cleartone called ‘Persistent’ for a while now, and received phone calls during meetings and even while teaching a lesson. In both cases no one commented or even turned their head because my phone rang. A good sign for me that the Cleartones concept is working.

Since the release of iOS 5 iPhone users are finally able to set custom tones for text messages, emails and other notifications. So I created Cleartones Notifications, minimalist, simple notification sounds for your iPhone or Android smart phone. Have a look at the Cleartones website for available options. You can also try some of them for free by paying with a tweet.

Thanks to Joachim Baan for supporting Cleartones and providing this beautiful image!

Coronado

We used to have an ocean drum at our house when I was a teenager. I loved to gently tilt and turn the drum and listen to the sounds of the waves. It’s nice to see Coronado, by Ong Kian Peng aka Bin, incorporating an ocean drum in a six channel surround sound installation. According to the artist, the installation was inspired by a visit to the beach at Coronado, hence the name.

Sterntaler

Sterntaler is a sound installation made by the Berlin based collective hands on sound. Accompanying an exhibition of gold jewelry made by young designers from Berlin, they attempted to resemble the sound of gold dust.

The team placed 70 piezo disks on the window and walls of the exhibition space. Metallic sounds were played through these little speakers, creating a whispering invitation to passers by to enter the store. I love the subtlety of this installation. We don’t need heavy amps and subs all the time.

Hangzavar / Cacophony

Recycling of old machines is good. But we all have iPods now, so what do we do with our old Sony walkmans? Chain them together using tape to create a great looking sound installation!

Hangzavar / Cacophony is a creation of Hungarian collective Nomad, consisting of Pásztor Bence, Pongor Soma and Tarcali Dávid. Check out their website for more information on their work.

So what does it sound like? Like with many good looking sound installations the main goal doesn’t seem to create a beautiful sounding piece of art. First of all it has to look good. And it does. Here’s a preview of its sonic qualities:

Happy new year!

To all visitors of Everyday Listening, may your 2012 be wonderful!

Dollar Note

Some images don’t really need a description. You can imagine what this sound installation by Robert Glogorov sounds like. Dollar Note looks wonderful, no doubt. 

Via Noise for Airports

A Balloon for Linz

I just came back from New York City, a place with an overwhelming sound, everywhere you go. And each location in a city like that has its own resonance, its own sonic identity. That’s hard to hear though if there is so much noise around it becomes a cacophony. But what if we could isolate this resonance and listen to the astonishing differences in the sound of urban spaces? 

Davide Tidoni did just that with A Balloon for Linz. Luckily Linz is not NYC, and he was able to find spots which were quiet enough to make a clear recording (using his nice helmet mount microphone). You might recognize the concept as Davide did something similar before.

Ode to the North

My brother Michiel takes part in the Fjällräven Polar competition. His goal: a trip to the Norwegian and Swedish north, navigating a dog sled trough 330 kilometers of snow. He would be thankful for your vote, so please consider clicking the vote button on the Fjällräven Polar website. 

For his promotional movie (he’s a motion graphics designer) I initially created some frozen sounds using the wonderful Spectral Dronemaker from the Soundmagic Spectral plug-in suite by Michael Norris. But Michiel found them a bit too haunting and wanted to put the emphasis on the beauty and timelessness of his photo’s, so used some simple sine waves instead. 

Sonic Business Cards

Richard Eigner was the man behind Denoising Field Recordings. He is also part of the electronic Music duo Ritornell. Katarina Hölzl designed some wonderful new business cards for them. By giving someone their business card they now give away a tangible piece of their music. Sadly, not everyone has that nice custom built wooden music box at home to play the cards. It’s a lovely idea though. 

Audio Palimpsest

While some artists are releasing albums on cassette tape again, you can also deconstruct your cassette player and build a beautiful sound installation from it. Like Anis Haron did with Audio Palimpsest, an interactive sound installation made with a “reconfigured cassette recorder”. 

When visitors come near the installation it starts recording ambient sounds, and playing them back at the same time. In the process many layers of sound are created. Hence the name (see the definition for palimpsest).