PHONOMETRY is a series of design-focused music. The concept encourages listeners to impart their surroundings into the aural experience.
Recording and mixing choices focus on spectral openness and perceptual subtlety to integrate the music with site-specific acoustics. The tonal framework admits concurrent sounds from the environment, yielding unpredictable harmonies and rhythms.
Recording and mixing choices focus on spectral openness and perceptual subtlety to integrate the music with site-specific acoustics. The tonal framework admits concurrent sounds from the environment, yielding unpredictable harmonies and rhythms.
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Oleander (dataset courtesy https://app.cyanite.ai/)
Islets (dataset courtesy https://app.cyanite.ai/)
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Tuning into the world
PHONOMETRY begins with calibration. Instead of the music being siloed from your surroundings, you tune the music to meet it—finding a level where they exist together. This balance allows the music to shift with each location, revealing new relationships between composition, place, and perception.
Location becomes part of the composition, transforming familiar places into new listening experiences.
PHONOMETRY begins with calibration. Instead of the music being siloed from your surroundings, you tune the music to meet it—finding a level where they exist together. This balance allows the music to shift with each location, revealing new relationships between composition, place, and perception.
Location becomes part of the composition, transforming familiar places into new listening experiences.
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An antidote to "playlists"
Each volume of PHONOMETRY contrasts distinct compositional approaches and moods, encouraging repeated listening and varied interpretations. The experience is nearly stochastic: listeners choose a time and place to encounter the work, using it to explore—or "measure"—the musicality of their surroundings. Ambient noise, unexpected interstices, and the character of a given environment become complementary elements in the listening experience. |
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how to listen to PHONOMETRY
PHONOMETRY offers a calibration process to establish a listening level at which recorded music and environmental sound can be heard together.
Before listening, the headphone or earbud volume is adjusted until the calibration signal is positioned just below or at the level of the surrounding environment. A reference point is thereby established between the music and sounds such as wind, distant traffic, electrical noises, etc. PHONOMETRY music is designed with this relationship in mind.
To achieve this, a calibration tool is included with each volume of PHONOMETRY (download at Bandcamp.) It is recommended to play the calibration through ambient-controllable earbuds/headphones* or speaker at a minimum distance of 2 meters (approximately 6 feet) from where you are positioned.
AUDIO CALIBRATION GUIDE:
*Supra-aural (on-ear), circumaural (over-ear) headphones, and earbuds may contain small, built-in transducers to allow introduction of external/ambient noise. It is recommended to enable this effect during calibration and album listening.
Before listening, the headphone or earbud volume is adjusted until the calibration signal is positioned just below or at the level of the surrounding environment. A reference point is thereby established between the music and sounds such as wind, distant traffic, electrical noises, etc. PHONOMETRY music is designed with this relationship in mind.
To achieve this, a calibration tool is included with each volume of PHONOMETRY (download at Bandcamp.) It is recommended to play the calibration through ambient-controllable earbuds/headphones* or speaker at a minimum distance of 2 meters (approximately 6 feet) from where you are positioned.
AUDIO CALIBRATION GUIDE:
- STEP 1: Connect headphones or earbuds*. Please ensure your playback device (smartphone, tablet, etc.) is in stereo. During calibration, you should hear a test tone sweep across both ears.
- STEP 2: Play included calibration video (or audio-only version).
- STEP 3: Lower volume until the test tone is barely audible.
- STEP 4: Next, you will hear the same calibration sound at 3 (three) different levels. Adjust volume to match level of the most prominent sound in your surroundings without masking it.
- STEP 5: You may repeat calibration if desired. After you are satisfied with the volume level, you are now ready to begin listening.
*Supra-aural (on-ear), circumaural (over-ear) headphones, and earbuds may contain small, built-in transducers to allow introduction of external/ambient noise. It is recommended to enable this effect during calibration and album listening.
for those who like
Brian Eno
Erik Satie
Hiroshi Yoshimura
Ryuichi Sakamoto
Toshifumi Hinata
Loscil
Harold Budd
Chihei Hatakeyama
Ryoji Ikeda
Max Richter
Ólafur Arnalds
Toshimaru Nakamura
Steve Roach
Akira Yamaoka
70/80/90s synth sounds
Hybrid film scores
Ambient/electroacoustic improv
Art gazing
Soundwalk
Urban exploration
Soundscape ecology
Erik Satie
Hiroshi Yoshimura
Ryuichi Sakamoto
Toshifumi Hinata
Loscil
Harold Budd
Chihei Hatakeyama
Ryoji Ikeda
Max Richter
Ólafur Arnalds
Toshimaru Nakamura
Steve Roach
Akira Yamaoka
70/80/90s synth sounds
Hybrid film scores
Ambient/electroacoustic improv
Art gazing
Soundwalk
Urban exploration
Soundscape ecology
audio calibration FAQ
WHERE SHOULD I CALIBRATE AND LISTEN TO PHONOMETRY?
A location with LAeq (loudness average/A-weighted) between 45-65 dB may be a good starting point.
Locations in this range could include outdoors with steady, distant traffic or slight wind rustling; indoors with constant fan/air conditioner or appliance noise; public areas where auditory masking--i.e., speech babble--is present but not overwhelming.
Depending on the impedance of your headphones/earbuds, very quiet locations (under 30 dB, LAeq) could result in an imbalance between the recorded music and ambient sounds.
If you wish to survey the loudness of your location, install and use a suitable app such as NIOSH Sound Level Meter by EA Lab (iOS) or Sound meter by KTW Apps (Android)
WHY THREE DIFFERENT CALIBRATION LEVELS? IS ONE MORE ACCURATE THAN THE OTHERS?
The calibration sound is a uniquely filtered broadband noise, identical in pitch and timbre but spaced apart a fixed range of decibels. Each level is represented by a hue (GREY, TEAL, PINK). TEAL LEVEL is the artist's recommended balance.
If you wish to alter the balance of recorded music to environmental sounds, calibrate your volume to the GREY LEVEL to increase balance in favor of recorded music; calibrate your volume to the PINK LEVEL to increase balance in favor of environmental sounds.
Such adjustments may be helpful in accommodating individual listener preferences and/or hearing sensitivities.
WHAT ARE RECOMMENDED HEADPHONES/EARBUDS TO USE?
Whatever you have on hand, give it a try. Ideally, headphones with a higher impedance (>30 ohms) with open back design or not too sealed so that you can hear outside sounds without feeling "claustrophobic".
Inexpensive earbuds are a wild card and may not provide enough volume or have suitable frequency response. (Very) generally speaking, PHONOMETRY will sound best on headphones/earbuds that have a flat frequency response range between 50hz and10kHz.
If your headphones/earbuds have ambient sound pass-through (also called transparency mode), it is recommended to enable it throughout calibration and listening. This will allow external sounds to enter the listening field, improve accuracy of calibration, and overall create a more immersive sound field.
Some recommended brands/models include:
A location with LAeq (loudness average/A-weighted) between 45-65 dB may be a good starting point.
Locations in this range could include outdoors with steady, distant traffic or slight wind rustling; indoors with constant fan/air conditioner or appliance noise; public areas where auditory masking--i.e., speech babble--is present but not overwhelming.
Depending on the impedance of your headphones/earbuds, very quiet locations (under 30 dB, LAeq) could result in an imbalance between the recorded music and ambient sounds.
If you wish to survey the loudness of your location, install and use a suitable app such as NIOSH Sound Level Meter by EA Lab (iOS) or Sound meter by KTW Apps (Android)
WHY THREE DIFFERENT CALIBRATION LEVELS? IS ONE MORE ACCURATE THAN THE OTHERS?
The calibration sound is a uniquely filtered broadband noise, identical in pitch and timbre but spaced apart a fixed range of decibels. Each level is represented by a hue (GREY, TEAL, PINK). TEAL LEVEL is the artist's recommended balance.
If you wish to alter the balance of recorded music to environmental sounds, calibrate your volume to the GREY LEVEL to increase balance in favor of recorded music; calibrate your volume to the PINK LEVEL to increase balance in favor of environmental sounds.
Such adjustments may be helpful in accommodating individual listener preferences and/or hearing sensitivities.
WHAT ARE RECOMMENDED HEADPHONES/EARBUDS TO USE?
Whatever you have on hand, give it a try. Ideally, headphones with a higher impedance (>30 ohms) with open back design or not too sealed so that you can hear outside sounds without feeling "claustrophobic".
Inexpensive earbuds are a wild card and may not provide enough volume or have suitable frequency response. (Very) generally speaking, PHONOMETRY will sound best on headphones/earbuds that have a flat frequency response range between 50hz and10kHz.
If your headphones/earbuds have ambient sound pass-through (also called transparency mode), it is recommended to enable it throughout calibration and listening. This will allow external sounds to enter the listening field, improve accuracy of calibration, and overall create a more immersive sound field.
Some recommended brands/models include:
- Sony WF-1000
- Bose QuietComfort
- Apple AirPods Pro
- Samsung Galaxy Buds
- JBL Tour Pro
- Anker Soundcore Liberty
- Earfun Air Pro
- Nothing Ear
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"Islets" - PHONOMETRY I: Calm Razor Portrait
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PHONOMETRY I is extricated from any semblance of 'occidentalness'. It sounds like it could have come from anywhere in the modern world.
