no.240 | Considering Transitions with Saumon Oboudiyat
An Oblique Strategized Soundsynth Soundscape Straddling Time and Space.
PSO is very excited to present a collaboration with sound-based practitioner, music producer, and architectural designer Saumon Oboudiyat. We met during a song-share session during Brian Eno’s class hosted by School of Song. Saumon makes carefully crafted, immersive cinematic compositions that span electromagnetic and field recording, synths, and sound processing. He constructs intricate worlds, drawing inspiration from his near-decade of experience in architecture and a lifetime of working with music.
For PSO no. 240, I sent Saumon a field recording of my front porch dawn chorus. Saumon used this recording as a map to layer a dynamic soundscape that rewards careful and repeated listening.
For the piece, Saumon drew upon Eno and Peter Schmidt’s Oblique Strategies. We took the title from a card he drew, which read, “Are there sections? Consider transitions."
Saumon shared his process, writing: "I approached the work by first listening and learning from the inherent inflection points in the recording, asking "what does the recording have to say?". Letting the field recording 'drive' the compositional decisions always brings a spirit of creative submission and constraint. The interventions I made include splicing in field recordings from my personal library, augmenting certain frequencies in the base field recording, and lacing in some improvised synth performances. And, of course, moments of silence - to foreground the inherent beauty of the original recording."
The image combines a photograph of prismatic light cast on the wall of Saumon’s office, which nostalgically recalls an apartment he and his wife shared as newlyweds, with a picture of the fair pecan tree that graces our view from the porch in Austin.
Saumon will release his debut solo album as sohme this summer via the Spirituals Imprint from Phantom Limb UK. Saumon is the founder of sohme production, the hub of his sound-based practice, which encompasses music production, film & podcast scoring, field recording, and sound installations. He is also half of the songwriting duo MVSO. Check out more of his work on his website.
PSO LIVE AT SXSW, SATURDAY MARCH 15, 5PM
Porch Swing Orchestra: 5pm
The Coffin Fits: 6pm
The John-Pauls: 7pm
The Buzz Mill
1505 Town Creek Dr, Austin, TX, United States, Texas
Live music! Free show! All ages! Lots of non-alcoholic and alcoholic drink choices! BBQ! Burgers! Pizza!
Paul Stautinger will join me on guitar, along with Bill McCollough on pedal steel!
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
IF I HAD 12 MINUTES (WITH BIRDS) by SAUMON OBOUDIYAT
Listen on SoundCloud
Saumon writes: The structure of this long form ambient work revolves around a field recording of birds and insect communications across a landscape ran through a Roland RE-201 Space Echo simulator. The synth piece is an improvised, single take, performance on the SOMA Terra.Let’s Collaborate!
LET’S MAKE SOMETHING TOGETHER
I love to collaborate, remotely or in person, but if you have a piece you would like to feature on PSO (without contributions by me), by all means, please reach out!
Just reply to this email, or contact me at info@porchswingorchestra.org and let’s talk!
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