Daily Slow Chat

2 comments

1. A while back I was reading about Kaija Saariaho’s use of this one program called CHANT, which was basically a synthesiser made to synthesise sung human voice sounds by implementing something called FOF synthesis. It’s related to formants, which are frequencies that are amplified in our speech, or singing, that let us create vowel sounds. For example, when you make the e-sound in a word like ”bed” there are formants around 600 Hz and 1900 Hz. And that’s what makes that vowel that vowel.

   Anyway, then I noticed that even though the original CHANT is no longer, these days it exists as a library for OpenMusic, a compositional tool I’ve been using recently. The library is called OM-Chant, and it’s the worst thing ever to google because literally like 99% of search results are some bullshit about om mantras and raising positive vibes by listening to buddhist monks chanting in 432 Hz because 440 is evil and not in tune with the universe bro.

   Stuff like that always reminds me of Finnish national romantic era painters, who drank absinthe all day and then travelled to the wilderness and vibrated in a lake in order to turn into a fish, because if you’re one with natures vibrations that will no doubt be possible according to ancient oral wisdom.

   I think this summer I will vibrate a bit somewhere. I’m going to eastern Finland next week, home of the Karelians whose stories all that shape shifting is based on, so that should be a good area to vibrate in. I bet turning into a fish is easier than figuring out how this fucking OM-Chant synth works.

2. Wandering around Kars today (on foot, not by car) and it’s quite an interesting city, some nice old buildings,a cool citadel and mosque, later we might go to a museum… very few tourists around in this part of Turkey, and practically no foreigners apart from us