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Sound Scripts

Sound Scripts

Sampling and the 'Sound Object'

Abstract

This paper addresses the tension created by exploring an acousmatic approach to working with samples. An acousmatic sound practice can be considered as concerned with immanence, whilst sample based sound practice could be viewed as chiefly concerned with transcendence. This tension provides fertile ground for exploration. There is a direct lineage from the tape manipulation techniques, and the subsequent compositional philosophy of musique concrete developed by Pierre Schaeffer, to the contemporary practice of sampling. However, the acousmatic approach to working with discreet 'sound objects' advocated by Schaeffer is at odds with the contemporary notion that a sample is a referent to a past sonic act. Through an examination of the foundations of musique concrete, in particular the notion of the 'sound object', and a comparison with contemporary sampling practice, this an acousmatic approach to working with samples. Working with samples in my own practice as a composer and performing musician I have found that sampling can reveal an irreconcilable duality that is in fact a case of transmateriality - an oscillation between a sense of being part of the world of things, and a sense of being outside it, listening in.

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