Hi fellow readers, this time we’re talking music. For quite some time, I’ve been wondering about the sound of a certain area which seems to be abandoned by pretty much all bands. It was the area when sampling technology became affordable and where a bunch of musicians adopted this (back then very limited) technology in creative ways to use any kind of noise in a musical context.
In this period (say, 1984-1990), bands like „The Art Of Noise“, „Jean-Michel Jarre“, „Depeche Mode“, „Moskwa TV“, and many more, emerged, who thrilled their audience with sounds that had been previously unheard. Obviously we lost this form of art somewhere along the way – I can’t think of any currently active band embracing these kind of instruments. Even the aforementioned pioneers have "developed" (why must every successful band „develop“ and lose the distinct quality that made them big? but that’s a topic for another blogpost) and turned their back on this.
Is it because listeners became tired or did the massive improvements in sampling quality and length (due to the vast price decline in computer memory we now have hours of sampling time where back in the 80s we only had seconds) thus the limitless possibilities strangled the creativity (again!)?
I still love to hear (and produce) those kinds of sound. So let me ask: Is anyone still sampling? (except sample library vendors, that is)
Cheerio – Gone fishing, err… field recording!