NW003 - DEPTH OF FIELD - PHILIP MANTIONE

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Depth Of Field

Social Immune System

HFone

HFtwo

Fabrics

Valuri

Dialtone And Strings


Published 4/28/21 during Covid-19 Pandemic

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Philip Mantione is a Los Angeles-based sound artist, composer, sound designer, guitarist, computer musician, educator, and multimedia artist whose career spans over two decades. He is an active contributor to The Pro Audio Files which has published over a hundred of his software and hardware reviews, technical articles, and essays on composition and electronic music production. His fixed media work has been included in dozens of festivals worldwide. His trio, TriAngular Bent, which includes circuit-bending virtuoso, Jeff Boynton and former Mother of Invention, Don Preston, released their eponymous debut in 2016. Mantione writes custom software to meld field recordings, found sounds, and analog and computer-generated sounds, into unique sonic textures.

Depth of Field is a collection of work created over the past two years using field recordings and computer-generated sounds. The title draws a sonic parallel with photography and visual imagery in terms of the relative clarity or presence of background and foreground content and the interplay and movement between the two ideas.

1. Depth of Field (7:13) Based on a field recording of hoot owls in Riverside, CA - 3:00am - Nov. 2011

2. Social Immune System (9:58) Social Immune System was created using the field recordings I made at the Occupy LA demonstrations (October 15, 2011) in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Included are voices from the protest including John Densmore (x-drummer from the Doors), Peter Joseph (founder of the Zeitgeist movement), text from a poem by Etheridge Knight (read by Densmore), text written and read by Joseph including a quote by John McMurtry which inspired the title of this piece. This is a stereo version of a 16-Channel piece included in the ZEPPELIN 2011 - SOUNDS IN CAUSE festival at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona – December 9-10, 2011.

3. HFone (6:06) Various samples manipulated with custom software written in Max/MSP called “Headfuck”

4. HFtwo (5:52) Various samples manipulated with custom software written in Max/MSP called “Headfuck”

5. Fabrics (8:42) Computer-generated music manipulated with custom software (Premiered in FILE 2011 at the SESI’ Cultural Centre in San Paulo, Brazil)

6. Valuri (7:00) Computer-generated music manipulated with custom software (Premiered as part of the “Wet Sounds” installation at several locations in the UK organized by Joel Cahen)

7. Dialtone and Strings (9:10) Based on samples of telephone sounds and a string orchestra piece called “Traffic for strings” (Premiered as part of SoundLab VII, part of the [NewMediaArtProjectNetwork]|cologne


Originally released December 26, 2011
© 2009 - 2011 Philip Mantione
Published by Scattered Music (ASCAP)
Scattered CD 111

[FAP]

Philip Mantione's Depth of Field is an interesting albeit incongruous collection of mostly experimental noise and ambient tracks. I say it's "incongruous" and a "collection" because it lacks a certain thematic cohesion I typically expect out of an album. “Social Immune System” in particular feels quite out of place amongst the mostly computer-generated soundscapes, sampling chants from the Occupy LA protests into a collage of half-realized rhythmic loops. I actually like this track, however I feel there was potential here for a more pointed, fully realized piece here that simply wasn't met. That aside, I ended up appreciating Depth of Field as a whole in spite of the tonal inconsistency. Some of the later tracks especially stand out; of note is “Valuri,” which really impressed me with how it subtly built up to the climax while keeping me firmly engaged along the way. Well done; solid.