John Daly/ / Sound artist/ Photographer/ Printer

I am curious about my response to sound, the construction of sound, the possible exploitation of my mind, my emotions, memory and nostalgia. As a professional photographer for many years I find that I relate sound to colour and shape – my work has often been described as sculptural, painterly and filmic. I create work that is an immersive auditory experience that is spacious and minimal and tend to layer obvious and hidden elements e.g. the spoken word may not be discernible all of the time – as in a dream.

After some experimentation and preparation I try to create pieces in one live take, knowing that there will be unpredictable occurrences. I set parameters within the software which influence each input device, microphone, guitar and prepared samples also using stutter, glitch and delay modules. The volume, tone and pitch of both voice and guitar influence the overall colour and texture of the output. My methodology has self-imposed limitations – for instance I don’t use a sophisticated DAW, industry samples, sequencers or midi because I think that they overwhelm the voice of sound artists. The main piece of software I use is gleetchlab, which has no memory facility and so allows me to improvise and construct each time. I use guitar, ebow, loop station, effects, Apple Mac, NI Komplete 6, Gleetchlab, Noiseplug, Ambient, Audacity, Zoom recorder, found sounds, field recordings, voice.