Just making digital conversation:

This is an e-mail conversation I had with Leif, late 2005. Looking at his online documentation is a like a jigsaw puzzle with the pieces scattered all over the Internet. It painted to me a picture of an extremely creative mind, who can produce 'simple' works like woodcarvings as well as hi-tech abstract sound installations. It is just this mind set that is necessary to be able to reach to the scale of sound capturing that is the core of Leif's work. It's fascinating and deserves more and deeper attention.

LB:I know and appreciate, Jos, that your day is actually a few hours long.
Congratulations on all your new earlabs pages. The overall feeling is very dynamic and quite a bit of presence.

LB: ah yes the tiln catalogue felt good for me to begin getting a variety of soundworks off my mind Up to the point where Marc offered me a CD, and some earlier releases like
MUSICWORKS
http://www.vergemusic.com/old/musicw.htm.
Stamp Axe
http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:Zwdj2rg58YQJS:www.swingingaxe.com/elecambcass.htm+leif+brush&hl=en
AERIAL#4
http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:ONk0JyMkKd4JS:www.vergemusic.com/old/expv.htm+leif+brush,+Aerial&hl=en
, a few other cassette invites and other performance circuits  I mainly stuck my ear on the ground and the Nagra recordings, etc.


JS: was thinking of editing the recordings (L:I had sent you in 04)
LB: okay with me it'll give me a clue about your current ears

JS: well, that's tricky, hm?
my guess:
warming up 0:00 - 1'40
1 -   1'40" - 4'20"
2 -   4'20"- 16'49"
3 -  16'49" - 32'48"
4 - 32'48" - 46'39"
something like that?
LB: sure

About the performance:

JS: documentation of the Duluth MINNESOTA some information on the Internet about the performance Can you point me in the right directions?
LB: you have some MPG3s on your soundpool page: http://www.kosmophone.com
which recaps our colab work- the Feeding Frenzy #12 photos are at
http://mrfastforward.com/DuluthFF/duluth.html  scroll down to 11, 12. ((Look at these photos as you read this)).  We all were scripted/SMPTE-timed.  My sound sources came from a quad-out Sony cassette deck. ((This was the analog master metal tape mixdown (8tr to 2) for the windwitnessing CD Twwgcd55_'05.)) On cue I would roll the insulated cylinders over the contacts and send 2 channels of sound to different speakers in the space.

JS:It's slowly dawning on me. The kosmophone is something that is constructed by Jerry Chamkis.
LB: correct.

JS: You were invited to 'work' with it?
lb; Not directly with the Kosmophone, yes  I worked with CDs Jerry sent me and actually returned to him the new mixed CD results.

JS: You were layering your own sound material over the kosmophone outings?
LB: yes.

JS: I was wondering what I was hearing. Sounds like MIDI is playing a part in the whole. Which of the sounds are yours?
LB: Kosmophone is all digital and my sound is specifically analogue-sourced.  (((I used AKG mics for water drops, woodpeckers, birds, very still but full ambiences, my whistling along w/birds, bees, flys and mortorways traffic. Shadow sensors (Erlangen Germany) and accelerometer sensors for trees and signal disc. The most often heard is the windribbon--  http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/lbarchivesf1.html  -- which was subject to wind and other elements and by branch strikes from nearby trees.  I used a handheld magnetic sensor to play the treesway --a human made quality)))  I'd just say the purity of Jerry's DSPing is in contrast to my more densely overlaping and chaotic analog signals. All sources were copied and pasted by me into ProTools from 15/IPS Nagra single tr 1/4" master tapes. The physical TerraInstrument sensor-monitorings are all referenced in URLs I sent to you http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/lbarchivesb.html.  I can spot some instances of AKG mic uses for sure.  Otherwise, all my analog sensors monitor wind/rain-stirred vibrations, limbs, branches, ect. Any MIDI control?  Not by me.  You could ask jchamkis@bga.com  Yes, the layering was all my doing.

JS: Another subject: I understand that you focus a lot of attention on the high and sometimes low tech equipment with which you generate or catch the sound or convert the signals into audible sound.  Yes. But I have not been able to find information about your compositorial process or principles. Or isn't there any? In the sense that you just catch signals and forward them through a circuit? ...
LB: In the 80s I traveled around with 200-5" speakers and a microprocessor. I could dial up my TerraInstruments from any USA location using an infinity transmitter.  (a telephone attachment which allowed me to reach my site in Duluth MINNESOTA and use whatever sound sources the wind had churned up and was vibrating and where the connection was made before anyone could lift the receiver!  During a performance the speakers were hung on all walls, ceiling and floor. I was able to position two sounding tracks from the keyboard into any, all or a combinations of the speakers. Later I used the same hardware twice (1) to create 4-to-2 tracks using sensors on trees, ice floes, terrain and my physical monitors. This tape was multiplexed (x number of inputs to 2 channels) at the Duluth site and satellite-transmitted to Yonkers, New York. (2) Downloaded via satellite and demultiplexed (reinstate the original # of sources) into the same microprocessor/hardware for placement in two vertical planes of 100 speakers each. My concept was to collect a spatial context and place it within a man made gallery. (((Later still there were differing geographical spaces positioned in different geographical spaces.))) These results would be like putting a large cotton ball inside a cardboard shoebox or a cotton ball inside a larger cotton ball. The microprocessor could input far more sounds than I was ever able to input or even input to my then Mac 9600 computer.
You're right.  Given a chilly cold front which would be available to a county-wide collection of sensors would indeed exceed the capability to contain the resulting sounds in a public space.  The fact is it'll only fit in nature.  The exciting news is that such phenomena sounds extremely comfy in headspace.  It sounds even better in a large floating space where ALL surfaces are covered by dual speakers (I mean 2 speakers in one.)

About Leif Brush and his work:

JS: What's your original name?
LB: Leif BRUSH  Nordic, European and USA heritage.  A nick and code name, Leifur (includes EARLabs), LeifurB is used with passaroundsound.uk.net and so the many variations

JS: You visited SAIC in Chicago?
LB: I'm reminded of an attitude I formulated in my later grad school days while at SAIC, Chicago.  Seems I knew then what I had done earlier in school and up to this moment it had resulted in a table of contents for my future processes.  I had indeed bit off more than I could chew.  But I went ahead on a lonesome road, losing what visual art friends I had made up to this point. The shorter version is that I realized I could not complete my million dollar do-and-learn projects.  Instead my contentment came from continued conceptualizations and the fact that I could farm out my details to other people, in whose work I shared an interest, and continue pressing on.  I accepted that it would be defined along-the-way and it will done sometime. And then move on.

JS:  Do you consider yourself a composer?
LB: I've never considered myself as a musician. Catalyst, yes.  Currently of interest to me are the following layers accomplished over many weeks time by a collection of VHS recorders. Begining here with a very old personal term that describes one approach to various exposures to listening on my own terms. I like and currently use intercepted "compositions":  These are approx. weeks long, 2-4AM ambiences (part1) in which I record 2 audio channels to VHS. This allows the building of daily natural-sounding contexts within differing spaces and allows me to fix space accordingly month by month (AKGs are used here).   Varied occurrences appear when the weeks are later overlayed. These will clearly define and spell out the spaces' reach--if that (It certainly is not "contained and reberverant acoustics).   For instance in  left center there's the bear along its path and this is never exactly the same week to week.  Yet each such detail spells out in my headphone space the exact terms of a given whole context.  Additional unique sounds in (part 2 ) during comparable time periods of weekly vhs tapes offer quiet ambiences. (Part 3) I'll add a layer of carrier waves between otherwise silent cell phones. ...

JS: "Another subject: I understand that you focus a lot of attention on the high and sometimes low tech equipment with which you generate or catch the sound or convert the signals into audible sound. But I have not been able to find information about your compositorial process or principles. Or isn't there any? In the sense that you just catch signals and forward them through a circuit?"
LB: (background details) http://freetoears.net
Initially I did this, yes and released a few cassettes. My main focus was on natural phenomena.  Besides this I mainly sought inputs which I could overhear and Nagra record full-track, 1/4' tape. My goal (as in an orchestra) was 200  physical and natural vibrations and sounds. No big deal thanks to university funding of senors, antennas and necessary hardware. I was happily overwhelmed by Terrestrial and extra terrestrial resources. A couple more cassettes released with sound (as is). At no time was I ever able to hear a variety of my juxtaposed soundworks.  Along the way I adopted music language to annotate titles and sound monitorings; these segued into related keywords. '79-80s was very productive and allowed me these additions to your questions. (Compose what, how?) A Intel 9090 microprocessor and hardware for suspending 200, 5" speakers over the reclining bodies of those lying beneath two suspended and layered speaker planes on the Loring Park grass, Minneapolis, USA.  This system had 500 analog inputs and as many 5 watt speakers. Mixed results resulted from the amplified sounds sounding overhead and from adjacent trees. 3d tree produced 2d flat planes of leaf varieties when wind-stirred. Keyboard allowed switching leaf types among both planes and horizontal sequencing.  Out of 500, 10 sensors is all I could afford and this resulted with as/is soundings.  
scroll down to PASSAROUNDSOUND NET http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/lbarchivesg.html

Human made architecture shares space with what I've come to call TerraInstruments: trees, water volumes and undulating terrain (natural sculptures).  There are 60 cycle hum and unique vibrations between them from terrestrial and extraterrestrial locales. Scale, proportion and context are basic to me In the sounds I hear from organ (inside) and belfry bells (outside); and acoustic containment nudged me toward chaotic, calming and omnidirectional radiating waves- as from the carillon. Structures have provided shelter for sure and original trees? Companion. I feel an attachment when working among them. Supporter. Trees are always there and hve been my main terrain instrument. Model. Can't forget the California Redwoods. Their physical proportions match the way they sound, from the instant a leaf breaks away (microscopic) to its trunk swaying in the wind (below hearing range and a damp-cellular mass).
When any humanmade structure and tree, each having people inside and out, are touched simultaneously by a common wind front, like a sound wave, they are impacted at various times the gust blows by them or through windows. All those inputs...are cued to Internet or GMT time...
New wireless sensors would be placed on every tree in x county along with air mics in other places and any body of water would have hydrophones. In this ideal context there would be as many participants as there are sensors.  Each would deliver up their piece of the puzzle available for downloading.  Don't ask me how these pieces are put together 'cause I'm headed in that direction. Pieces of what you want in a movie, like old Napster, are downloaded one by one and assembled. Technically. the sensors would be locally mixed down, multiplexed (combined) to 2 channels and uplinked to satellite.  When received the reverse happens and you have to have a bank of nano technology receivers/amps/speakers.

JS: I am curious about what I am hearing when I listen to your music. To me, it is abstract sound, whereas I think (but I may be terribly wrong) that to you it's not at all and it does matter whether the listener knows what he is actually hearing.
LB: Source is important in addition to yielding its parts, when re-combined, matches its original "formal considerations." I don't like to ID everything. For instance in my thunder, wind and solo soundwork performances the wind was "familiar," not so for the tree since most species sound alike--except when you offer needles versus leaf. And it's true, ears have unique, and ongoing, expectations/fantasies. Me too.

JS: what would earth sound like when we could listen to it from outer space?
LB: Let me suggest a detail I'm interested in. Seeing the wind.
part 1 http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/lbarchivesc.html (DeDeolen Hall section)
part2 scroll down to WINDSCUBE http://www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/lbarchivesd1.html
Earth's uniqueness compares all solar system planets and are on GOOGLE.
I'm not alone, but for other (and related?) reasons
http://www.units.muohio.edu/dragonfly/sounds/SYMPHONY/creature.shtml

Leifur