Skew and Satirist – Eaten Alive
August 2014
A music video I produced for a track called Eaten Alive on the album THROUGH THE COMPOUND EYE EP (KILLEKILL021) by SKEW & SATIRIST aka Max Cooper and Gareth Williams.
My interpretation of the track appears as an abstract representation of THE COMPOUND EYE in the form of a 2D Audio-Reactive Array. Intended to destroy pixels on screen depends on the viewer's setup together with the intense sound.
Words by Skew and Satirist:
This track is the result of a session where we both worked with our own setup simultaneously, feeding the result together into a common mixer. That way we could both actively experiment rather than having one person “drive”. One of the main features of the track is a feedback matrix we created by accident which ran out of control, making a really great sound that luckily we were able to capture. You can hear it in the breakdown section. The finished track is oppressive, unnerving and disorientating. It is not supposed to be a “pleasant” listening experience but hopefully challenges the listener.
The video artist’s interpretation of this track presents an abstract representation of a “compound eye” in the form of a 2d audio-reactive array. It is inspired by his interest in early abstract film/cinema but powered by modern computation. In the most intense part of the song, the array of elements also becomes hyper-complex, creating some really interesting compression artefacts which should appear different on different playback devices. Rather than trying to make everything transparent, being able to see the medium itself in the piece, and in a device specific way, appeals to us. Similarly, depending on the system, room and volume the song is played back in, the audio experience is different: in the office this text was written in, the filing cabinet rattles and goes crazy with one of the sub-bass notes, in a club, different parts of the room might resonate with different notes.
CREDITS
Video by: Itaru Yasuda
Music by: Skew and Satirist
Eaten Alive features on Through the Compound Eye EP
Released on Killekill, 2014
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