counmasta justy's report

counmasta justy report of khoj sound art residency 2006

I was exited when I was chosen for the residency and had a few goals that I wanted to see through

1. Meeting other people involved in sound art and to interact with them.

2. To produce some sound art material or album.

So basically i wanted to collaborate with someone on a sound art project and make an album by the end of the residency and hang with the artists and Delhi atmosphere.
The residency went off well with me and another artist Micheal Northam hitting it off on day one.
We started to record all sorts of sounds from our environment using various mixing techniques
and hard disk recording of sounds.. Then we sorted out various layers of sound that go together.

So first 2 weeks was for intense recording from me playing on a mixie container to long durations of shruti box sessions. To lovely nature recordings. Then 2 weeks of sorting the sounds and putting then together in logic audio software.Building layers and layers of sound and adding filters, eq and distortion etc and a whole host of plug ins.

Here we started editing what we wanted and didn’t want and what makes sense to both of us. Last week was for mastering and checking for mistakes. Also making the cd cover which included the colour of the chai shop we went to every day and the picture of the place. The amazing thing was that it was a true collaboration. Only when both of us agreed on something it stayed.

The overall vibe of the residency was great. Just the right thing for a music starved nation like ours. It helped me in many ways to develop as an artist. khoj is happening.

The following were the goals set and completed.

1. To be able to interact with other artists related to sound art.

2. To make my second album with Michael. Which I adore.

3. To learn many new techniques of recording and tweaking environmental sounds..

4. Using live musical and non musical techniques and applying it to sound art.

The khoj team was very supportive and helpful.

No, I did not have any issues or difficulties during the residency.All was good and I think it must continue in the same fashion.

Future plans is to be able to go for more residencies. And to start an experimental sound studio with khoj.