Sampling Salford : ‘musical quotation’ and the female voice

Scott, JE

Abstract

This presentation arises from an on-going project, exploring the activation of popular music from Salford, through a series of live intermedial events. Live intermedial practice involves the real time mixing of sound, image, object and text and can manifest in a range of modes, from semi-structured solo performances to improvised participatory events. In this presentation, I activate sonic aspects of the developing practice, specifically focusing on the act of sampling popular music from Salford through the looped female voice.

In framing the practice, I will consider the ‘grain’ of the female voice, and how, in its live performance of sampled material, an ‘encounter between a language and a voice’ (Barthes 1977: 181) is created. Through this encounter, the predominantly male musical culture and voices from this area – Mark E Smith, Ian Curtis, John Cooper Clarke and Ewan MacColl – are re-interpreted, re-imagined and re-experienced. Following Barthes’ notion of the ‘friction’ between music and the ‘grain’ (1977: 182) of the voice, the presentation will explore the transposition of the ‘original’ music as a ‘destabilizing process’ (Steinskog 2010: 142), generating productive ‘frictions’ between a male past and female presence.

Citation

Scott, J. (2015, November). Sampling Salford : ‘musical quotation’ and the female voice. Presented at Women in Sound/Women on Sound symposium, Lancaster University

• Presentation Conference Type: Other
• Conference Name: Women in Sound/Women on Sound symposium
• Conference Location: Lancaster University
• Start Date: Nov 13, 2015
• Deposit Date: Nov 30, 2015
• Publisher URL: http://insight.lancaster.ac.uk/?p=1354
• Additional Information: Event Type : Conference