*Some selected production notes from Michael Pollard’s “Translations 01” album available January 8th, 2013:

Material Study 01 (Sand) is a recording from a stereo hydrophone buried under the sand in a lake.  Standing on top of the transducer, holding the MiniDisc recorder in my hand, and monitoring the feed with a pair of in-ear earphones, I slowly shifted my weight and the sand beneath my feet.  My younger brother was on the shore throwing firecrackers into the water; this was an ‘accidental’ aspect of the recording.

Material Study 02 (Cello and jacket) is made from a cello as it is dropped onto a carpeted floor with a contact microphone taped to it’s bridge.  The moment of impact was ‘frozen’ with an infinite sustain effect pedal.  Both the sustained tone and the live feed from the contact microphone were played into the room at high volume while the contact mic was still attached to the cello.  This was recorded.  Roughly one year later year later this ‘cello drop’ recording was amplitude modulated in a computer audio synthesis environment by a pair of stereo contact microphones taped to a wind breaker being blown by an air circulator as it hung from the ceiling by a string.

A pencil rubbing for the album cover is made from a pencil rubbing of the texture of a wall.  A 7 ⅛” x 11” piece of rice paper was taped onto a wall with stereo contact microphones taped to the wall along the top and bottom edges of the paper.  A pencil was slowly rubbed against the paper in vertical lines from top to bottom (or L to R according to the stereo configuration of the microphones) and recorded direct to computer.  The rubbing produced from this process was scanned into the computer and can be seen on the cover of the album.