When I work with drones, they’re usually from physical sources. THIs is an acousmatic work based on several field recordings of a faulty outdoor public light pole transformer, taken at different angles, directions, and distances, and diffused together to explore both the physical characteristics of the drone and its ambience, as well as the feelings of sustained simultaneous anxiety and calm a drone at this pitch and allure can give. It was recorded in the middle of a sleepless night, after rain. The title refers to the simple reflexive impulse of being “Just Basti,” and to the pitch of the drone. JB is a series of field recordings that explore sustained contradicting emotions rooted in loneliness.
Diffusing field recordings like this requires a lot of dynamic and automated EQ, and intentional phasing issues added on top made this the type of work that sounds a lot more simple than the intense editing and A/B-ing that it took to finish. Not a necessary amount of work for the result, but the process is part of the product nonetheless.
This work was made for and featured on an experimental radio station that I have since lost the name of.
Basti Aker 