The Chinese Restaurant Tape series has a complex back story.
I collect audio cassettes and quarter inch reel tapes from flea markets, used item stores and anywhere else I can find them. Tapes are becoming rare and much harder to find.
A few years ago I came across a plastic storage box of old Chinese restaurant tapes at a local flea market in the inner city Melbourne suburb of Camberwell, in my home state of Victoria, Australia. This particular find contained some soft pop music, some ritual music and some spoken word material.
The tapes sat around in my studio gathering dust while I continued working on other projects. I felt that at the appropriate time the tapes would be used in some kind of music concrete project.
During May and June2022 I constructed a large sound sculpture called the “Flux Organ”. The sound object was constructed from over 20 discarded ink jet printers that I had collected randomly over the past few years from curb side rubbish dumping. A huge chunk of my creative output is constructed from discarded materials such as metal, wood and e-tech waste. The main structure of the Flux Organ utilises a large format printer, the type used by architects or civil engineers who print off plans and technical drawings on a big scale. The thing weighed a tonne and I literally gave myself a hernia lifting it into the back of car. But I knew I wanted this particular discarded printer. I had only ever found one previously about 15 years ago in the e-waste department of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. I had broken this printer down into separate parts, one of which was a motor to be used in the Flux Organ. This little detail gives you an indication of how long term I need to think and plan ahead in order to turn some of my creative dreams into real life physical objects of sonic art.
The Flux Organ is a strange and very unique creation, that’s why it needs such a long description. As far as I know, there is no other sound object like it on earth. If you are aware of anything similar, please let me know, the creator may be a long lost soulmate.
The large format printer has an axel that once pulled paper through the printer. Its sole purpose now is to drive 12 unpowered stepper motors that create electronic tones when I press them with my fingers against the rotating axel. Above the 12tone row is another 6 unpowered motors that are belt driven. 3 of these motors have extra sound inputs wired into them. I play audio signals from tape players into these extra audio inputs, hence the name Chinese Restaurant Tapes. The motors spin and the audio signals become modulated by the flux interactions between each coil of the stepper motors. Now this is only a brief description believe it or not, because I still don’t fully understand what I have created. It’s all pretty new territory and I only have one other creative colleague to bounce off who can explain to me via their technical understanding of what it is that I have created. I really hope you enjoy the music. I’ve had and will continue to have an absolute mind bending and creative time creating music with the Flux Organ. Thank you from me to you for putting in the time taken to read through this lengthy description. approximately 1 hour of music. digital version available on request. I can dig a copy from my extensive archive.