Machine Pattern # 01

Machine Patterns # 01 is the result of more than a year of work that sets out to recreate the mechanical manufacturing processes experienced at AE Harris & Co., a factory in Birmingham. The edition has two parts, one graphic and one sound: two musical compositions released on a yellow cassette. The sound work is built from field recordings made inside the factory, which captured the sound given off by the machines and by the mechanical manufacturing processes.

The result is two ironic compositions that recreate the sound situation the workers live through every day, in order to preserve the memory of the space and of the people who work there; in some ways, it is a tribute to the hard work done daily by the workers at AE Harris & Co. The cassette responds to the need to recover a format whose own characteristics are related to the mechanical and physical aspects of the factory. Its colour, yellow, also refers to the colours commonly used in security systems, drawing attention and arousing a sense of alarm before listening. The graphic part is closely bound to the sound compositions: Federico Sancho has transcribed the sound into images, using typography as musical notation, which gives the graphics an ironic play between real and fictional representation. The release is the outcome of a long process that acknowledges the reality of the factory workers at AE Harris & Co.

Exhibitions

Be Festival, Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham (2012)

“Noosfera Sonora”, Sound Archive of Experimental Music and Sound Art (SONM), Murcia (2013)

“L’Altra #1”, ESCOLA MASSANA, Barcelona (2016)

“Sound Art in Spain (1961 – 2016)”, Museu Fundación Juan March, Palma (2016)

“Sound Art in Spain (1961 – 2016)”, Museu Fundación Juan March, Cuenca (2016)

“Escuchar con los ojos”, Fundación Juan March, Madrid (2016)

“Escuchar con los ojos”, Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City (2018)

Reviews

“One of the big differences between the 80s cassette movement and the current revivalists, is that these days there is hardly a weird package around, unlike the 80s with its pyramids, cans, pill boxes and bathing sponges. So in that respect this nice oversized styrofoam box needs a big applause – sufficiently different from the majority of tapes reviewed here. Inside the box we find a yellow tape with no print and a piece of paper with some sort of coded message, but puzzling is not my middle name, so I didn’t bother. I tried the website for more clues, and having films and pictures in stead of words is a nice idea, but they aren’t hardly informative. So, the nice graphic by one Federico Sancho and the sound by one Mikel R. Nieto, whose website is equally uninformative. Which is a pity since the music is actually quite nice. Here too I am reminded of the 80s with its drone like sounds, humming like a machine, and perhaps taking its source from a machine. When the drones end, there is, lo and behold, even a machine like sound, one of a primitive kind. Maybe a print place of some kind? With some letter press, hand operated device? I am not sure, but it adds to the conceptual nature of the whole package. What it is all about is a mystery, but it looks and sounds great. And that’s perhaps also a nice 80s touch, where you had zero information most of the times.” – FdW, Vital Weekly

“In a Styrofoam box with a beautifull presentation comes sealed in recycled paper and highlight the title ‘Machine Patterns # 01’ and the names of Mikel Nieto (music) and Federico Sancho (graphic). Inside this box there is a yellow cassette accompanied by notes that seemed to be coded messages. This cassette was released on Security Device, a group of (apparently) Spanish artists. ‘Machine Patterns # 01’ are field recordings made in the manufacture factory AE Harris & Co. in Birmingham, with mechanical processes that are tapped in some cases and not in others. You hear a lot of noise that could be inserted into the post-industrial line. Intense buzzing arise that become drones and a sultry wall of sound that reveal a certain melodic line. In addition, mechanical and repetitive movements come out. These are sounds that are the rhythm base of a track, to which are added various sound objects. It is possible that not all the sounds you hear are occurring at the same time, in any case, are carefully assembled. Interesting proposal showing how everyday noises that take place in a factory can deploy new sounds that conjure up images, colors and stories.” – Loop.cl

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Federico Sancho, Maria Bobes, Isla Aguilar, Miguel Oyarzun, Mike Tweddle, Be Festival and all the workers.