Jonas Olesen

2015 Release. Jonas Olesen is a Danish experimental composer and the coordinator of the Scandinavian education plan on sound art at Nordic Sound Art. He is back again with the home label BIN and his new album, which it might be defined as “analog-anthological”. Test features some source material, taken from a number of historical test records, and some psycho-acoustical demonstration recordings, including additional parts generated with a LEADER LFG-1300S Function Generator, and processed by an Phillips ISP 5021 Sound Enhancer. There are 32 tracks, seven of them on vinyl A, the remaining ones on vinyl B. Some tracks are tests: for example, Sine Wave Sweep, which is a series of frequencies normally used to check the feedback and the resonance of the environments, and Room Exciter [Acoustic Metronome, 4 Combined Tempos] Noise Colours [Repeated].

The tracks also include some simulated tinnitus sounds derived from The British Tinnitus Association (tinnitus seems to be a recurring theme for a generation of musicians grown up with electronics, high-volume headphones and exorbitant sound-system sets). However, the mix of signals and frequencies is difficult to understand. What does Jonas Olesen actually play and what is a simple audio document faithfully repeated? When can a specific choice and a series of sound samples be considered a form of artistic editing? Can the enigmatic simulation of the “test record” format be called a new media art and an unconventional expression? Jonas Olesen underlines that “it’s a game between the original material and the dry aesthetics of these sounds”, a technical and apparently little charming crossroad between music and original audio sources.

He is interested in the duality and in the possible interaction with psycho-acoustic demonstrative signals, which are the elements considered within a landmark of collection and classification. The human ear is able to hear the sounds within a range between 20Hz to 20 kHz, obviously there are sound tests to verify this, but the most difficult thing is the challenge to the creativity and to the complex motivations and poetic interconnections of a sound-artist". (Neural)