Band / Artist: Sound Awakener
Year: 2014
Genre: Dark Ambient, Free Jazz, Modern Classical, Experimental, Field Recordings
My Review:
*EDIT - I'm a twat, and forgot to ask,
Nhung is female. All gender references have been changed. Sorry!*
Today's artist of note is Sound Awakener. I got an email from her right before the new year. She lives in Vietnam, and makes ambient, experimental style field recordings with piano. She describes it this way.
Five improvisations recorded on upright acoustic piano. Each piece has a really extinctive character .Vibrate has layers of reverb and exteneded techniques on piano string. Gather Eternity has loud hiss noise and distorted sound. Gallery of emptyness is sort of a lo - fi recording. Remembering all passing things and Untold are a mix of piano chords and field recordings.
"Five Chapters" refers to the endless search in life.
Here's the interview that we had.
Jumbly Music: It's nice to meet you. How are you
doing?
Nhung Nguyễn : I’m doing good. Thank you. Things are getting musicaly marvelous for me.
Jumbly: So, whats your back story?
Nhung : My musical journey started in 2002 when I began taking private classical piano lessons. The training ended in 2007 and since then I have been developing my own techniques and focusing on composition and improvisation.
In 2011 I started my solo musical project - Sound Awakener but no material was released until 2014. My aim is to live with the sonic journey as close as possible. It has always been a natural process.
Jumbly: Where are you from?
Nhung : I was
born and now living in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Jumbly: Do you find it influences your style and
your music much?
Nhung : Obviously
it does. The city is full of thousands types of sounds. That’s why I use a lot
of field recordings from everyday life in my music. To be more specific, in “Five
Chapters”, there are field recordings from streets and restaurants.
Jumbly: Who makes your album art?
Nhung : Right now
my album artworks are stock photos and each of them connects strongly to my
music. I hope in the future I’ll invite someone to work with me on that aspect.
Jumbly: What way do you think is best to enjoy
your music?
Nhung : The best
way is to enjoy with an empty mind.
Jumbly: What would you say is your favorite
thing you've done?
Nhung : Interesting
question. My favortie thing I’ve done is the thing I do everyday – appreciating
and collecting sounds.
Jumbly: Do you like giving away your music for
free? Do you hope to continue or would you rather move to a pay system?
Nhung : I like
giving it for free when I feel I need to do that. I have some for free on my Bandcamp
page and actually “Five Chapters” is free too. But I also have some paid ones – honestly I need to support myself
financially.
Jumbly: If anyone wanted to do a collaboration
with you, would you be interested?
Nhung : I’m
always open to collaboration.
Jumbly: How should they get in touch with you?
Jumbly: What kinds of
projects do you really want to do in the future?
Nhung : I really want to focus on making music for moving images
and installations. Of course other forms still interest me.
Jumbly: Do you follow
the blog? What would you like to see more of? Or any suggestions?
Nhung : I’ve been
following the blog since June and I much enjoy the content. One thing I would
like to see is more interviews of artists
Jumbly: Do you know any other great sites that
people should check out?
Nhung : Haha,
this is self – promotion : I have a pretty private music blog called Cánh đồng
âm nhạc (Vietnamese, which means “Field of music” in English) (
http://canhdongamnhac.weebly.com/ ). The reason I
write it in Vietnamese is that there are few music blogs here, especially for
genres like ambient/experimental or even classical music.
Jumbly: Thanks for sharing your music with me.
I have one last question. What is the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?
Nhung : The most
beautiful thing I’ve ever seen hmmm is maybe the calm sea in Đà Nẵng (it is a
city in the central of Vietnam, which I’ve visited twice) Thank you so much for the great talk!
