MP3 Deviation #8

Notes,
The MP3 Deviation album contains pieces that are results of the collaborative research by a team of the New Aesthetics in Computer Music (NACM) and myself, led by Tony Myatt at Music Research Center at the University of York in UK in 2009. My idea was to develop new software based on the disruption of the MP3. Primarily I thought the MP3 as reproducing device could have created very new sound by intervention between its main elements, the compression encoder and decoder. It turned out that result was not satisfactory. However, we found that if the sound file had been corrupted in the MP3, the corruptions generated 21 error messages, which could be utilized to assign various 21 lengths of samples automatically. Combining with different play back speeds, it could produce unpredictable and unknowable sound. That is a main pillar of the software. We, also, added some other elements such as flipping stereo channels and phase inversing alternately with a certain length of frequency ranges, which resulted different timbres and pitches. I performed several times at the MRC and I was certain that this software would be a perfect tool for performances. I have tentatively performed the piece in public in Kyoto, May 2009 and in New York, in May 2010. I also performed it successfully with totally different sound sources when I was invited for The Morning Line in Vienna in June 2011.

Side A. MP3 Deviation #8
Performed and recorded by Yasunao Tone August 1, 2011 in New York City.

Track 2. MP3 Deviation #8
Performed and recorded by Yasunao Tone August 1, 2011 in New York City.

The original sound sources made by Yasunao Tone.
Producer, Yasunao Tone
Executive producer, Peter Rehberg
Cover design, Tina Frank
Photogrpahy, Tina Frank, Florian Voggeneder Digital Mastering, Russell Haswell

Acknowledgement:

Thanks for the support by NACM, Tony Myatt, Mark Fell, Peter Worth, Thom Blake, Oliver Larkin, Peter Rehberg, Tina Frank and Russell Haswell.

The New Aesthetics in Computer Music research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council UK.