Intro taken from StabbedPanda.com:

“Combating the technological and societal restrictions of quarantine during the COVID-19 outbreak, a group of musicians combined forces to create an album in aid of Olympias Music Foundation.

The project is led by Cambridge-born musician Jay Plent, (Scatterchild), and features a variety of artists from his creative network working in a variety of genres. The broadly-labeled “alternative” album is an eclectic mix of art-rock, quirky indie, and abstract electronic music. One artist has even hidden an image of the COVID-19 virus within the album. All contributions were recorded and mixed in isolation, making the most of available technology.”

This project was a real joy and I’m thrilled with the finished result. I wanted to make my own post to focus on some of the details within my contribution. Let’s be real, we’re all here for the sonification images.

The track Soap features sonified images of COVID-19 – the well-known image of the virus is processed in such a way that we can “hear” the image. It’s the “big noise” in the middle part of the track. The image below shows the section in question, around 0:26 – 2:15, where the semicircle is clearly visible.

Here’s a hastily-drawn guide if you’re struggling to see it.

The software I’m using to achieve this is Photosounder, and I occasionally dabble with Harmor by IL as well.

I’m also really pleased with Laura Elmer’s archive footage music video for track no. 5, Soap, which features footage from the same Prelinger Archive film I sampled for the vocals.

Links:

• Listen to and download the album on BandCamp.
• Get more information on Olympias Music Foundation from their website.
• Read Yuck Magazine’s article on Collabavirus by Ethan Davies.