As sonic artists, we often don’t have any meaningful input on the subject matter or structure of the commercial projects we design for. We wanted to find a way to create an edit that would showcase our approach to crafting music and sound design to picture, not a ‘reel’, not a ‘manifesto’, but a series of sonic studies.
This first study came out of Joseph’s interest in connecting his work in sound with sewing and textiles. The starting point was a jacket he had made, which gave us direct access to the fabrics, tools and machines involved in its construction, both as visual subjects and as sources for recording.
In our usual work, there’s often a disconnect between what we see and what we hear. Sound design involves taking liberties with that relationship, using sounds that may have little to do with what’s actually on screen but suggest the right movement, texture or feeling. Here, we could work with sounds that actually belonged to the subject, then manipulate and warp them without losing that underlying connection.
With limited visual resources, we relied on simple animation, scanned materials, basic image processing and textural footage. Rather than trying to disguise those limitations, we leaned into them, allowing the imagery to remain quite raw and minimal, giving the sound room to shape the rhythm and character of the edit.
As we worked through the project we found a nice relationship between sewing and sound. Each involves gathering, manipulating and assembling materials. This study gave us an opportunity to bring those practices together and experiment outside the usual constraints of a brief.
All of the designers at Cypher are makers at heart, we have spent years, decades, on the relationship between sound and motion. All of us have backgrounds in film and visual media, composition and recording arts.
John Black : Founder/Creative Director/Sound Design
Joris van Grunsven : Original Music
Joseph Sims : Animation/Edit/Sound Design/Mix
