Solar Return – Salt – sounds from the cosmos

solar-return-salt-sounds-from-the-cosmos

CD – Fibrr Records

Very low frequency, or VLF, is the conventional name assigned to radio frequencies found between 3 and 30 kHz. Due to its limited bandwidth, the VLF band is used to transmit basic information related to radio navigation services or government and military communications. However, a VLF antenna can also capture the sounds of an electromagnetic storm coming from the stratosphere – it is this phenomenon that is the subject of Solar Return’s focus. These recordings, captured over four years, boast a unique and enigmatic aesthetic quality. This is due to their hypnotic and granular textures which resonate cryptically, invoking a sense of otherworldliness. However, these textures do not come from interstellar spaces, as sound does not propagate in a vacuum. They come from our planet, intercepted and captured by the audio equipment of Solar Return.
Solar Return is comprised of Jenny Pickett and Julien Ottavi. Pickett is a multimedia artist whose practice incorporates sculpture, sound, graphics, video, interaction and performance. Ottavi is a media activist, researcher-artist, poet, experimental director, anarchitect and founder of APO33 – the interdisciplinary artistic, theoretical and technological laboratory based in Nantes, France. The duo formed in 2009 through a shared interest in electromagnetic phenomena and audio capturing processes. In Salt – sounds from the cosmos, those capturing processes are quite basic but effective, examples of field recordings that are intentionally raw and unprocessed. This approach underlines the passion at Fibrr records for supporting eclectic and unorthodox methods in sound creation – an approach that draws inspiration from many different areas of research and expertise.

 

Solar Return – Salt – sounds from the cosmos