Music for Earbuds is composed entirely from headphone feedback which makes some surprisingly organic (as well as electronic) sounds, Stephen Cornford writes to introduce his new CD. A collection of sounds stark and stubborn, as a listener you hit against their form, slide on their surfaces. These sounds so alien yet alluring call you to spend time with them, attend to them. They mark the edges of hearing and understanding. The edge here is the ear that hears as listening encounters nothing but itself. There is no key into or out of these sounds, only the endless play of their fabrications. In a blog entry, Stephen quotes: 'Put in a nutshell, the real question is: how can we control and humanise an already uncontrollable and dehumanising technology, when the value foundation for that attempted humanisation is rapidly disintegrating. (Source unknown).' The circularity of these sounds bounces the responsibility of listening back onto you: their tones, sharp or rounded, puncture your understanding with their presence. Set against a deep void, in their exaggerated detachment they mock the easy, dangerous assumption that a recording is true: as incantations these frequencies return and turn and generate new meanings in themselves, different every time, true every time.' Daniela Cascella.
200 copies.