Nicolas Collins " Pea Soup To Go"

Started by Elantric, October 24, 2014, 11:11:26 AM

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Elantric

Nicolas Collins Pea Soup (1974; revised 2001-2014)

I composed Pea Soup while a student at Wesleyan University. A self-stabilizing network of analog circuitry (originally three Countryman Phase Shifters) nudges the pitch of audio feedback to a different resonant frequency every time the feedback starts to build. The familiar shriek is replaced with unstable patterns of hollow tones, a site-specific raga reflecting the acoustical personality of the room. These architectural melodies can be influenced by moving in the space, making other sounds, or even by letting in a draft of cold air. The piece existed both as an installation, responding to visitors, and in a concert version, in which people performed activities intended to influence the feedback.

In the late 1990s I tried to replicate the now unavailable Countrymen, and by 2002 developed a fair emulation in software, which I return to for minor tweaks on a regular basis. Thirty years on I began touring the piece again, and re-positioning what was a typical 1970s task-oriented work of strict Minimalism with a freer occasion for "improvising with architecture."

By 2014 I had accumulated recordings of over 70 performances of Pea Soup. Working with a former graduate student I developed Pea Soup To Go, a web app that plays back the various audio files in pseudo-random order, with long cross-fades, to create a seamless mix that slowly modulates from one "room key" to another. The app was launched on October 26, 2014 -- the 40th anniversary of the first performance of Pea Soup.

Here are links to some recordings and documentation:

Pea Soup To Go web application
Collect Them All! -- an annotated playlist of all the recordings that are randomly shuffled in the Pea Soup To Go web app, presented here in historical sequence.
A CD of a lush performance of Pea Soup in a Czech monastery, released on Apestraartje in 2004.
An essay on the history of Pea Soup.
Macintosh software for performing Pea Soup.
Technical instructions and score for setting up and performing the software version of Pea Soup.
http://www.nicolascollins.com/texts/PeaSoup2014.pdf
All This And Brains Too -- an article I wrote for Resonance Magazine about my work with feedback in general.
http://www.nicolascollins.com/collectthemall.htm
http://www.nicolascollins.com/aboutpeasoup.htm


http://www.nicolascollins.com/peasouptogo/