anna/nick e

ANNA followed NICK'S written process to make her work:


Nick Edin:
Generally my process of creating improvised music involves the use of four operations; listening, repetition, blending and change.
These are employed and re-employed throughout the process.


I keep in my consciousness the idea that the creation/production has it’s own will to survive and grow and therefore to listen to it and be aware of it’s changing desires as well as my own, as it is being created.


Firstly, I allow myself a certain time to produce anything without censoring the output – in an environment where there is minimal need to do logical things.
This continues until I find something I like, for any reason.


Often then, I will repeat it with the idea of producing both the following two outcomes:
1.   To use it as a starting point or “backdrop”
2.   To use it to impose a structure of some sort.*(see below)


There is usually a time of uncensored expression followed by a time of fairly strict censoring, leaving only the best material.


Then often I will add layers of different sounds, repeating the four operations of listening, repetition, blending and change.


* In essence, what I mean is that through repetition and change over time, a structure presents itself. Then, if I am conscious enough of it (the evolving structure), I can project it into the future, thereby not only continuing (or changing) the imposed structure, but giving the sense that the structure had existed before the moment of creation - therefore giving a sense of form to what could be just a rambling linear progression. I suppose it gives a sense of cycle(s).


Anna Jaaniste:

ANNA JAANISTE
Flesh Wound
Birch trunk, milk, galvanised steel, clay, pigment, work tools
Dimensions variable













NICK followed ANNA's written process to make his work:

Anna Jaaniste:
I allow engagement between my self and a material to occur. I follow impulses that arise as a result of that connection.
(Please note the word “material” is used in a very broad sense.)


In this engagement with material, I try to accept myself as I am, with a sense of vulnerability, of allowing myself to be seen as I am, of showing myself to the world.


I also recognize that it is a transient experience and commit myself to that state.


My engagement with the material might take the form of any of the following experiences - in any order, configuration or combination:


I hold a material in my awareness. It is a material to which I was drawn, for some reason I do not know. 


Without making active effort, I listen to the material with my physical senses and my imaginative/emotional world.
I allow the material to affect me.
I allow myself to seep out a little bit into the world, into what I am doing, into my contact with the material.


I touch the material.
(Touch may occur via my sense of tactile, physical touch, my eyesight, by simply sharing physical space with the material, via imaginative/emotional/intuitive connection, or by another way).
I allow the material to touch me.


I allow myself to enjoy the sensual conversation I start up with the material.
I listen to any waves of sensation (pleasure, curiosity, earthiness, wateriness, or whatever else) well up, and I allow those waves to propel me - I continue playing with those sensations in relationship with the material.
I experience desire as something that stimulates, emboldens me and opens me in subtle ways - freeing me up towards interaction.


How am I connected to this material? Where is the connection?  I follow the movement of the connection.


I treat the material as if it were a part of myself.
I allow it to affect me as a lover might - speaking to me with possible rhythms, sounds, smells, weights, textures, tones… with pressure, hardness, softness, yielding, a sense of direction, senses of movement or pause, transportation...


How is my body propelled to interact with this material?
What path does my curiosity follow?
How does the material guide my body?
What questions does my body want to ask of the material?
What momentum is coming to life?
What is the dynamic between forces of restriction and freedom in the dialogue?
What shape is created in the world as I engage with the material?
What forces of nature present themselves, and move around us, through us? How do these forces move?


How does the material ignite my imagination?
I allow my imagination to be ignited without holding onto formed images. I allow it to keep changing - to be movement. I allow images (not necessarily visual images) to come and go, all the time directing me onto the next experience.
I give attention to the feelings of my body - noticing the things aroused in me - whether they be physical sensations, emotional, intellectual, or mysterious responses.


If I sense a dark, dark, darkness somewhere in the material, I honour it, and navigate myself sensitively around it to unveil it, or enter it - touch it, sense it, take it into my experience, let it give strength.


What imaginative force wants to take form?
I listen to this form.
I allow it to live.
I do not question its truth.
I work to refine its clarity, to express it clearly. I serve its needs.
I shine off the superfluous material. I allow it to sound.


What is this spark that is created when my emotions meet my history meet my body meet the material of this world meet myself…? and on and on, roll over, under, around, through… I allow the layers to live together.


If at any point in the process I start to feel fatigued, overloaded or distracted - I take a break.  I go and do something else, immerse myself in something different, and then return to the material when I am ready, or it is ready (whether it be to return with my body or in mind).


If at any time I feel I have lost the truth of my conversation with that material, I stop working with it in that context - and move on to something that holds a spark for me.


When I feel the conversation has come to a natural resting point (and this is a highly sensitive and crucial listening point in the process!) - when I feel the material is truly sounding, in both my imagination and in the world - I consider the work “complete” for the time being.


Nick Edin:


                        Click on arrow to play:


                        NICK EDIN
                                Dead Centre
                                Sound recording - guitar and voice
                                5:20