Studies Made on a Typewriter
The new tactile-influenced album by Ryan Hooper releases on 5 June on Bandcamp
With the title of Ryan Hooper’s new album being a nod of appreciation to a piece of typewriter art by Anni Albers, Studies Made on a Typewriter’s interests lie in exploring a typewriter’s interaction with a range of texts in different ways.
From deconstructing the typewriter and its individual parts as active machine and historic object, to the tactile act of typing in relation to touch and onomatopaeia sounds: the click clack chik-chik-cha clickety clack tchick ping clunk.
The work seeks to look at the relationship between writer and typewriter and how these objects can be a marker of place, as well as a conduit for collecting diaristic etchings across environments via a process of transferring ideas to keys, steel type to ribbon and ink to paper.
On a more personal level, Studies Made on a Typewriter is also a recital of typed poetry and prose fragments inspired by and interweaved with treated field recordings documenting internal and external landscapes.
this is not music for airports still silent partially unsighted wallpapering the skull feedback loops between recorder and microphone never heard or felt a performance of 4’33" like this
The 11-track album was created with voice, the written word, field recordings, improvised sound performance, audio processing and typewriters.
The album comes with a 20-page PDF booklet, featuring a liner notes, lyrics and poetic fragments, tracklist and original collage artwork.
11 tracks | 50 mins | releases June 5
Origin story
The album began from a long-form track called ‘Studies made on a typewriter’, which was specifically created for Hard Return’s Compilation album inspired by the prompt: “the most repetitive thing you've ever done”.
This 10-minute piece was originally 20-minutes long and was made during an extended period of weeks suffering with a cervicogenic headache.
A loop was created by layering tiny fragments of manipulated recordings from an open window late at night. This loop was processed through a range of delay effects as it was left to repeat with subtle variations.
The title of the piece came from Anni Albers’ ‘Studies made on the typewriter’ – pieces of typewriter art that became a visual simile to describe the heavy weight of textual noise felt behind the eyes during this prolonged pain experience.
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The making of the piece, and subsequent listening to it, became part of the healing process. It was a way in which the abstract pain could be made less abstract. Upon listening, with eyes closed, visual patterns may become recognisable in the repetition, á la ambient noise wall – akin to recognising a legible word in an inky mesh of overlapping typewriter text printed on a piece of card.
))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) ))))))))))))) ))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) ))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) ))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) ))))))) )))))) ))) ) ) ) ) )))) ) ) ))))))))))))))) ) ) “….” “ …. …… “ “ ……….. ……… …….. … … …………” “ “ “”””””””””” ..///.. _+_+_+//////. +\\*&^§§± //§[ ]_====++ ‘’’’””
Part of this original experimental piece was later reworked to form ‘Interwoven Threads’, the second track of the album called Studies Made on a Typewriter.
words on the screen resemble dust motes in the air floating in between the kitchen blinds / resemble off-kilter double-speed juggling of colour dots under the eyelid / resemble mitochondria / resemble falling damp sand grains / resemble rusty bent screws / resemble tiny particles of cat litter tray kicked around the carpet / resemble trails of hay fever gunk / resemble dried-up vermillion red acrylic stuck under the lid / resemble a pulsating blood vessel in the cyclops’ eye / resemble untuned AM radio / resemble harsh noise wall music / a version of Anni Albers’ Studies made on the typewriter lies behind my eyes / a mesh of text & negative space
Studies Made on a Typewriter – a partial reference list Annie Albers’ work continued to inspire the full album alongside a number of other influences: typewriters mechanisms parts constructed/parts deconstructed to type to write to read assorted texts poets/authors to see to watch to record the gathering of field recordings landscapes environs objects fragments place and space Kernow to breathe to gather to process languages diaries errata onomatopaeia filmmaking cinéma vérité soundtracking snooker angles textures etchings Margaret Tait Paolo Gioli Graham Lambkin Sylvia Plath
Anni Albers
Anni Albers is widely considered to be the foremost textile designer of the 20th century. She made major innovations in the field of functional materials and at the same time she expanded the possibilities of single weavings and individual artworks. She was also an adventurous graphic artist who took printmaking technique into previously uncharted territory.
“I like the sound a typewriter makes.”
– Paul Auster
