THE BEAST: NEW FILM SOUNDTRACK RELEASED TODAY

Today I’m releasing a collection of soundtrack work compiled from my original music and sound design for “Nowhere Left to Run”-- a dreamlike, post-apocalyptic experimental film by Felipe Mafasoli. This collection reconstitutes the raw materials I generated and documented for the film, layering them into a new configuration for an experience facilitated exclusively by listening. Click on the link below to hear it.

HEAR “THE BEAST” HERE

The collection isn’t concerned with COVID-19 specifically-- I created the soundscape for the film in mid-2019. But the 2020 edit and mix process has proven serendipitously appropriate for a polarized interval of both stillness and frenzy, reflection and panic, of a simultaneous longing for the social and the solitary. Mafasoli requested a soundscape with an elegaic quality, a memorial to a world lost forever. I have no idea what anyone else will take away from this collection, but to me it sounds like memories preserved in amber, shot through with the glitches of operator error.

These tracks coalesce around two disparate elements: 1) iterations of a fragile melody evocative of a lost past, and 2) a shifting landscape sourced from analog synth overtones, glacially swept into horizons of reverb and shifted pitch. Mafasoli wanted the soundscape to include incidental sounds of what life used to be like pre-apocalypse, so it made sense to incorporate field recordingse of outdoor environments from my neighborhood years ago and from a city street downtown, where I documented my performance of the theme on a piano placed on the sidewalk for people to play in public (the recording also captures wind, passing vehicles, and snatches of overheard conversation).  

Stream for free, purchase if you like. For May and June of 2020, all profits will benefit The Food Group, a Minnesota food shelf.

More music + sound by Mike Hallenbeck for experimental film

More original music by Mike Hallenbeck for narrative film

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MORE WORK UNDER THE “ARCHIVE” MONIKER

I’ve put out several “musique plastique” releases under the name Archive over the years— more recently appended with my given name, given the number of other artists out there using the same nomenclature. Searching for previous releases is making me realize that some things have gone missing, and I’ll have to re-up them! But here are some tracks to give you a taste in the meantime:

Silent Night (Shepherds Quake) (Dark Winter)

That Will Be All (from the “Music in Black & White” release, Dark Winter)

Eventualities: Voice (extrapolated from vocal performances by Bryce Beverlin, Insides Music)

Eventualities 02: Guitar (extrapolated from guitar performances by Charles Gillet, from The Material (Insides Music)

Living Daylight Savings Time (Insides Music)

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STANDOUT MUSIC INTERVENTIONS

To be clear, I didn’t do any of these. But I think you’ll agree that some splendid work is being done here, by people who evidently have way more free time than I do…

TAINTED LOVE BUT THE CLAPPING IS REPLACED WITH THE LAW & ORDER SOUND EFFECT

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DON’T FEAR THE REAPER SLOWED DOWN 800%

And augmented by a ton of reverb, it would seem. Settle in for this one. Truly epic.

As you’ll see in the “related videos” column, plenty of tracks are getting this well-earned treatment. I highly recommend “Breathe” by Pink Floyd, and especially the Beatles’ “Blue Jay Way”.

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NINE INCH NAILS: CLOSER BUT IT’S GHOSTBUSTERS BY RAY PARKER, JR.

SUPPORT THE MUSEUM OF PORTABLE SOUND'S PATREON

It gives me great pleasure to announce a new Patreon to support the Museum of Portable Sound, an institution of which I’m a proud board member and featured artist. Please consider subscribing!

The Museum of Portable Sound (est. November 2015) is a portable collection dedicated to portable audio, based in London, UK. The Museum’s galleries currently consist of curated digital files located on the Museum Director‘s mobile phone. Displays of the permanent collection are augmented with an ongoing series of temporary exhibits in its Exposition Space. The Museum also holds a small Physical Object Collection related to portable sound.

The Museum is curated by John Kannenberg, a London-based sound artist and one of the field’s most rigorous practitioners and commentators. You know that project where somebody stretched out Carl Sagan saying the word “billion” for one hour? That was him. Etc.

With this new opportunity for Patreon support, MOPS stands poised to become a self-sufficient entity. Please consider supporting the Museum as it builds a new foundation and strives toward future endeavors.