Hasan Hujairi: Recent Episodes
Hasan Hujairi
sound artist :: composer :: writer
‘THROAT’ out on Paxico Records (in digital and limited cassette editions). For purchase: http://hyperurl.co/throat.
bookings/inquiries: info@hasanhujairi.com
Process: Spectral Analysis of open D3 note played on Oud, generative padding based on spectral analysis using Max/MSP, additional processing in Ableton Live with Modular VST, Fragulator effect, and Valhalla SuperMassive. Additional sounds included: slowed down/pitched up oud improvisation and electric static field recordings.
If the boy’s going to get sick, he might as well come out of it with a new hobby.
[Made in one take using an OP-1 for synths and radio sampling, processed through the Borderlands Granular app on an iPad Pro. Mastered using Master Recorder on iPad Pro.]
Yup, a digital well.
[made using Madrona Labs’ Aalto VST plugin running into four instances of Softube’s Modular VST, running a chain of Plaits and Clouds modules. Also, mHz’s Function m4l instrument was also used throughout the piece. All hosted in Ableton Live 11 Suite.]
every day, it hurts in a different way.
[made using a Teenage Engineer OP-1, processed through Softube’s Modular VST running a Mutable Instruments Cloud modular hosted in Ableton Live 11 Suite. Mastered using MasterRecorder app on iPad Pro.]
a song from a past life comes alive through fingers, breath, and electronics.
[played and recorded on melodica and riq through MacBook Pro’s internal microphone in one shot using Leafcutter John’s “Forester 2022” in Max 8. Further processing done using two instances of Softube’s Modular plugin running Mutable Instruments’ Clouds module and Output’s Portal plugin hosted in Ableton Live 11 (one for musical recording, and one for old field recording found on iPhone’s Voice Memos app.]
me? you tell me.
[made with iPhone Voice Memo app playing recorded audio of jam session I had with members of the Ismaeel Dawwas Band, and three instances of Softube Modular running patches based around Mutable Instruments’ Clouds module (all hosted within Ableton Live 11 Suite). Mastered using the MasterRecorder app on an iPad Pro.]
Family.
[made using Felt Instruments’ Jasko plugin, Softube’s plugin version of Mutable Instruments’ Clouds module, Voice Memos app on iPhone, and the Borderlands Granular app on iPad Pro. Mastered using the MasterRecorder app on iPad Pro.]
In video games, they don’t gaslight you on your way out for the last time after all your pains.
[made on a Polyend Tracker and mastered on an iPad Pro using the MasterRecorder app.]
They were a terrible crowd to party with.
[made on a polyend tracker, mastered on an iPad Pro using MasterRecorder App]
Ambient experiment with an embedded use of Murabba’ rhythmic cycle. Created on Polyend Tracker. Mastered/Exported on iPad Pro.
Full set of tracks by Hasan Hujairi originally intended for Sound + Fiction Beatroots 2020 Stream (November 21st, 2020). This set was recorded on November 29th, 2020.
This is my response to the second assignment for Tidal Club. The assignment essentially asks us to look for samples of speech and slice/cut them up in a way that makes it all interesting. In this attempt, I ended up trying out a non-rhythmic approach, trying to use the prepared samples as spliced tape. While doing this, I realized that by layering different samples at different speeds (at different volumes), that clear "sample cut" feeling is blurred out, making it seem like I am avoiding the assignment altogether.
The assignment is as follows:
Once you have your sound source, you'll need to edit it into a coherent loop. You need to somehow edit it so that it starts on a 'down beat' and lasts a certain number of beats (usually a power of 2, e.g. 4, 8, or 16 beats). In audacity you can hold down shift and press space to play a selection on loop, which is a good way of testing if something is looping properly by ear.. I'll do a live stream soon to demonstrate this process.
Alternatively you could manually cut the sounds into short percussive parts for arranging with the n patterns and mininotation, if you prefer - that might be more work.
Then start slicing, splicing, chopping and striating until you come up with something weird/interesting. Try juxtaposing / mixing that with a less messed-up version. You could then either record a few repetitions of a single pattern, or if you fancy it and have some time, try to flesh it out into a whole track. Have fun with it!
Things to think about
How speech changes when you start treating it as sound The relationship between speech perception and movement (check out the McGurk effect 5) How does slicing longer sounds feel compared to sequencing individual sounds?
This is the first assignment for the TidalCycles course I am currently taking. We were asked to make two 3-minute tracks with the same elements using TidalCycles Live Coding methods. I decided to make one seamless track with the first 3 minutes and 20 seconds at 2 cycles per second while the remaining time was at 0.5 cycles per second.
اعادة صياغة الفقرة الفاصلة بتسريع صوت العود أربع مرات. النتيجة: يصبح تسجيل العود شبيهاً بالقانون من حيث الصوت وآلية العزف
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Today's randomly generated gaussian numbers are: -4.9227108630e-1 8.3950421150e-1 1.6665754610e+0 1.6415335120e+0 -4.8031831310e-1 3.7288605570e-1 9.8865888460e-1 8.3016730660e-1 1.0113311410e-1 3.8855894430e-1 7.6463716630e-1 8.1318388870e-1 -1.3431282210e+0 -2.4768495210e-1 -3.3382589340e-1 -4.4779861570e-1 -7.3092311510e-1 -6.6543954470e-1 -5.0155372940e-2 5.3584138440e-1 4.4257922800e-1 4.1349566810e-1 1.9161803920e+0 -6.3361663670e-1 -1.4612545050e-1 -6.2591669730e-1 -9.0739249000e-1 5.4154983260e-1 1.1592269800e-1 2.9865399640e-1 7.1534856460e-1 5.2954304100e-1 8.1666953180e-1 -5.7096464160e-1 -1.9290550830e-1 -1.1698994750e+0 1.3514014220e+0 2.1591458400e-1 -9.1455603520e-2 -5.1124737410e-1 -8.4720605030e-1 -4.8479153090e-1 -5.5246922020e-2 -1.3933809790e+0 3.9032036950e-1 -9.8075118590e-1 1.3382035390e+0 -1.6699054130e-1 -1.6724066080e+0 2.6214033550e-1 1.4215546210e-1 -1.7931970540e+0 -1.3515025360e+0 -2.8356088340e-1 2.0975428050e-1 -3.1484676230e-1 -2.6622265090e-1 -6.9301631850e-1 8.0280476690e-1 -2.5065229230e-1
The music Orpheus played when no one else was around must have been far more interesting than what he played for others.
the buffalo decided that it no longer needed to move to another locale simply because life in this new place was agreeable.
"Duck, Duck, Telephone, Trumpet: Improvisation Workshop" Location: Beirut Art Center (Beirut, Lebanon) Date: July 7-8, 2016
Recordings of two of the improvised pieces discussed, presented, and performed during the workshop. Both pieces are composed by Japanese improvising musician Shiba Tetsu. The pieces performed are "HAND PIECE (WITH MEMORY FUNCTION)" 「振り下ろし(メモリー機能付き)」and "LET'S PLAY WHAT WE CAN IN SINGLE HAND (ORCHESTRATION ETUDE)" 「片手で出来ることをしよう」. Both pieces were composed and first performed in 2005. In the accompanied recordings, there were eight performers and the instrumentation includes: melodica, oud, flute, various percussion instruments, two acoustic guitars, cello, duduk, various voices, foot stomping, unvoiced wind mouthpieces for wind instruments, iPad running "Borderlands Synthesis" App, and one Teenage Engineering OP-1.
About SHIBA TETSU and the GAME PIECES: Shiba Tetsu is an improvising musician. After the first performance of John Zorn's so-called game piece cobra around 1992, voice peformer Makigami Kouichi organized Cobra tokyo Operation starting in 1993 in La MAMA, Sibuya, Tokyo. Inspired by participation in this, Shiba Tetsu conducted numerous workshops in the following years, each with five participants. In these workshops, players created their own game pieces and played them. In 2005, Shiba Tetsu estimated the number of workshops held to be between 20 and 30. (source: http://intuitivemusic.dk/iima/sht.htm)
SPECIAL THANKS to Carl Bergstrøm-Nielsen for providing his support and knowledge in the process of preparing for the workshop. Please visit Carl Bergstrom-Nielsen's website on Intuitive Music for further information: http://intuitivemusic.dk/intuitive/index.htm
"Duck, Duck, Telephone, Trumpet: Improvisation Workshop" Location: Beirut Art Center (Beirut, Lebanon) Date: July 7-8, 2016
Recordings of two of the improvised pieces discussed, presented, and performed during the workshop. Both pieces are composed by Japanese improvising musician Shiba Tetsu. The pieces performed are "HAND PIECE (WITH MEMORY FUNCTION)" 「振り下ろし(メモリー機能付き)」and "LET'S PLAY WHAT WE CAN IN SINGLE HAND (ORCHESTRATION ETUDE)" 「片手で出来ることをしよう」. Both pieces were composed and first performed in 2005. In the accompanied recordings, there were eight performers and the instrumentation includes: melodica, oud, flute, various percussion instruments, two acoustic guitars, cello, duduk, various voices, foot stomping, unvoiced wind mouthpieces for wind instruments, iPad running "Borderlands Synthesis" App, and one Teenage Engineering OP-1.
About SHIBA TETSU and the GAME PIECES: Shiba Tetsu is an improvising musician. After the first performance of John Zorn's so-called game piece cobra around 1992, voice peformer Makigami Kouichi organized Cobra tokyo Operation starting in 1993 in La MAMA, Sibuya, Tokyo. Inspired by participation in this, Shiba Tetsu conducted numerous workshops in the following years, each with five participants. In these workshops, players created their own game pieces and played them. In 2005, Shiba Tetsu estimated the number of workshops held to be between 20 and 30. (source: http://intuitivemusic.dk/iima/sht.htm)
SPECIAL THANKS to Carl Bergstrøm-Nielsen for providing his support and knowledge in the process of preparing for the workshop. Please visit Carl Bergstrom-Nielsen's website on Intuitive Music for further information: http://intuitivemusic.dk/intuitive/index.htm
"An improvised sound art performance by Hasan Hujairi that modulates around the artist's hidden - and not so hidden - sonic reference points: Archival Bahraini folk music, personal field recordings, digitally synthesized sounds, algorithmic stratagems, the question of virtuosity within electronic music practice, and analog modular synthesis."
Performed at Beirut Art Center (Beirut, Lebanon) on July 6th, 2016.
loud fish tank with single goldfish, ancient yamaha organ belonging to previous homeowners/missionaries, and some unwanted sounds.
Recorded in one take at the Horangashy Namu Creative Residency (Gwangju, South Korea) when no one else was looking.
"Crow’s Eye View, Poem No. I" by Yi Sang
13 children rush down a street. (A dead-end alley is suitable.)
The 1st child says it’s frightening. The 2nd child says it’s frightening. The 3rd child says it’s frightening. The 4th child says it’s frightening. The 5th child says it’s frightening. The 6th child says it’s frightening. The 7th child says it’s frightening. The 8th child says it’s frightening. The 9th child says it’s frightening. The 10th child says it’s frightening.
The 11th child says it’s frightening. The 12th child says it’s frightening. The 13th child says it’s frightening.
13 children were just gathered together like that as either frightening or frightened children(the absence of any other condition was highly preferable).
If amongst them 1 child is a frightening child it’s fine. If Amongst them 2 children are frightening children it’s fine. If amongst them 2 children are frightened children it’s fine. If amongst them 1 child is a frightened child it’s fine.
(As for the road even an open alley is suitable.) Even if 13 children do not rush down the street it’s fine.
- Translated by Walter K. Lew.
A recording of a performance given at Mullae Art Space (Seoul, South Korea) on May 30, 2015. Narration/Voice: Iho Ahn. Oud: Hasan Hujairi. Composed by Hasan Hujairi.
About the piece:
The source of the texts used is a collection of short stories written by Bahraini writer Ahmed Hujairi. The texts are extractions from a short story series entitled “Biscuits”, all of which describe a metaphorical “Wall” that demonstrates many contradictory and oftentimes deplorable characteristics. The voice in this piece drifts between being a narrator (through the use of speech) and commentator (through the use of song/vocalisations), whereas the oud presents both a modal foundation (in contrast to the voice) along with a context of Middle Eastern musical tradition. This version attempts to strip down the fundamentals of epic narration traditions while minimising instrumentation.
every once in a while we make sure we're alright we make sure we still got it in us to do what we think we do best despite creeping doubt and angst over all the lost time and all the lost opportunities and all the opportunities that one thinks he or she deserves that go to others instead.
OR
Let's just ignore the elephant in the room.