Soulnessless Canto V. Meditation on Wage Labor and the Death of the Album

54 Pages·2016·8.37 MB·English

by  Thaemlitz T.

Terre Thaemlitz

SOULNESSLESS CANTO V

English

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SOULNESSLESS CANTO V
MEDITATION ON WAGE LABOR AND

THE DEATH OF THE ALBUM
Ou r reckless extension of goodwill [via pro
bono projects and performances] is
INDEX ultimately an act of self-sabotage. The
impassioned artist's stance, “art for art's sake,”
Score . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
obfuscates a labor issue. The iconic struggling
Audio File Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
artist who volunteers her work is a scab, but
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
About This Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 does not know it. If demanding payment for our
Playing The Score . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 labor means culture industries would collapse,
Recording Session Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
then so be it. Perhaps we would finally begin
Technical Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
conceiving of cultural production in terms
Gigabyte-To-Time Conversion Formula . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Recording Session Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 larger than industry. Or more likely, we might
Playback Order Of Recording Sessions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 find that we cannot exist without those
Known Playback Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
industries which fail to support us, making us
Live Performances To Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
already pathetically irrelevant. Either way, I
Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Photographic Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 shan't be mourning. 1
– Terre Thaemlitz

1 Thaemlitz, “Please tell my landlord not to expect future payments
because Attali's theory of surplus-value-generating information
economics only works if my home studio's rent and other use-values
are zero.” First presented at the symposium “Non-Simultaneity and
Immediacy: Utopia of Sound,” organized by Diedrich Diederichsen
and Constanze Ruhm at The Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, May 29-
31 2008. Originally posted on comatonse.com, August 2008
(http://www.comatonse.com/writings/utopiaofsound.html).
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MEDITATION ON WAGE LABOR AND THE DEATH OF THE ALBUM

T. Thaemlitz

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Canto V

MEDITATION ON WAGE LABOR AND
THE DEATH OF THE ALBUM

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AUDIO FILE INFO SUMMARY

Name: output.mp3 1930: Introduction of the 36 minute 33RPM Long
Format: MP3 (44100kHz / 320kB/s fixed bit rate) Play (LP) album
Size: 3.984217739664 GB 1980: Introduction of the 74 minute compact disc
4,079.8389654159 MB (CD), followed by the 80 minute/700MB CD,
4,177,755.1005859 KB and now the 90 minute/800MB CD
4,278,021,223 bytes 1991: Introduction of the MP3 file format (file
34,224,169,784 bits duration determined by media size [CD, MD,
Duration: 29:42'30.530575 (h:m’s.ms) etc.] or computer OS file size restrictions)
106,950.530575 seconds
I n the era of MP3 downloads, the link between
Note: Possible variance of -0.1024 sec./-4096 bytes allocated to performance duration and media format duration has
Mac Ext file system. been severed. The album, as a compositional formation
derived from those media durations, is dead in the wake of
infinite single-track downloads. While there is a desire to
celebrate audio recording’s liberation from the arbitrary
time restrictions of archaic media formats, technological and
corporately devised limitations of the MP3 format make any
such celebration premature. Throughout the CD era, record
labels have come to demand audio producers make projects
that fill the longer digital media capacities. So much so that
consumers now feel disappointment and even trickery when
purchasing shorter albums. Yet all the while labels are
paying lower advances and royalties. Today, online
distribution demands “digital exclusive” materials that
exceed the CD, while royalties are recouped in ever-smaller
fractions as projects are financially (and aesthetically)
fragmented through single-track downloads. In the midst of
current economic crises among distributors and record
labels, aesthetic conservatism is on such a rise that it seems
impossible to consider the MP3 as a medium suited for
anything other than short compositions intended for fast
download. In fact it offers never before capable LP

possibilities. Internet liberationist hype and entrepreneurial

promise constitute the ideological means for concealing how
current trends in MP3 audio have further enslaved audio
composition to the format whims of a disheveled and
corrupt marketplace. A marketplace fixated on mass appeal

and convenience in all genres. Between June 6-16, 2008, I set

out to record the “world’s first full-length MP3 album”
(<4GB, FAT32 compliant, approx. 30 hours at 320kB/s) at
York University's Sir Jack Lyons Music Research Centre, in
England. The resulting MP3 file is an edit of a 31+ hour

piano solo recorded in sittings averaging 4 to 6 hours in

length. The theme is “Meditation on Wage Labor and the
Death of the Album.”
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ABOUT THIS PROJECT idealization as a timeless and supra-economic process of
cultural production transcending capitalism.
T his project was conceived and recorded during a two
week residency with “New Aesthetics in Computer In keeping with the anti-spiritualist themes of Soulnessless,
Music” at York University (UK), a three-year research the production of this large-scale meditation upon material
project organized by Tony Myatt and Mark Fell which praxis (i.e., labor and music industries) is intended as an
investigates the practices of commercial and other non- anti-spiritual gesture in an audio marketplace which insists
academic electroacoustic audio producers. Although upon conducting its business through non-materialist and
participants in residence often take advantage of the transcendental jargon: the language of “soul.” It is also an
faculty’s assistance with digital sound generating issues, I attempt to decontextualize the act of meditation from
wished to exploit the rare chance of having access to their dominant spiritualist interpretations, and momentarily
Fazioli grand piano. Furthermore, as part of my usual reframe it as a material process of deep contemplation upon
critical and antithetical approach toward the standard social issues within a given time, space and context. I am not
operations of whatever context of employment I find myself drawn to the concept of meditation out of any romantic
in, I thought it would be interesting to have the faculty assist interest in meditative techniques, but resort to it in
me with digital issues other than sound generation. The desperation and protest at the absence of alternate methods
result was this recording of a 30+ hour acoustic composition, for lengthy contemplation. It is a statement of
which is dependent upon the MP3 format due to its length. discontentment with the manner in which “critical culture”
In this manner, the “computer music” aspect of the project and “the Left” so often allow rightist concepts to dominate
rested primarily in the investigation of how to generate the our perception of thought as transcendental. Time and again
final MP3 file. Since the digital MP3 format is currently the this results in the incongruous task of contemplating the
only means of presenting the final recording in its entirety, I material through a dominant linguistic legacy of the
do consider it a piece of computer music in the strictest spiritual. Ultimately, “Meditation on Wage Labor and the
sense. It’s subjugation to release as just one part of the larger Death of the Album” is no exception. It is an example of and
album Soulnessless questions the limits of what constitutes inquiry into our failures.
an “album” worthy of distribution in a post-CD audio
marketplace. Record labels increasingly cite download T he composition itself emerged from, and was
culture’s demands for free and excessive content as contextually dependent upon, the facilities of York
justification for their own greedy contractual demands for University. The recordings were made in the Rymer
“digital exclusive” bonus materials. However, in its Auditorium, which was designed to radically reduce
excessive generosity, the massive data weight of this piece audible reverberation through the use of high-tech wall
currently makes it completely impractical for download coverings and paints. External noise and vibrations are also
distribution (as one person joked, it would take almost as minimized by the auditorium resting on foundations that
long to download as to listen to). are independent from the rest of the Music Research Centre.
Overall, the Rymer performs to a Preferred Noise Criterion
The theme for “Meditation on Wage Labor and the Death of specification better than the PNC 15 standard – an acoustic
the Album,” as expressed in the title, was an extension of condition that is costly to build; and doubly difficult for an
concepts I had presented days earlier at the symposium “independent” producer of my economic standing to work
“Non-Simultaneity and Immediacy: Utopia of Sound,” in for both a lack of institutional affiliation granting access to
organized by Diedrich Diederichsen and Constanze Ruhm such spaces, and a lack of personal wealth to maintain
at The Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. The title of my lecture anything other than a “bedroom studio” in my apartment.
was “Please tell my landlord not to expect future payments The high-end equipment inside of this space – including the
because Attali's theory of surplus-value-generating piano, microphones, speakers, digital audio interface and
information economics only works if my home studio's rent other recording equipment – were similarly rare for me to
and other use-values are zero.” Among other things, the work with.
lecture investigated the workings of media/“artistic”
production as a form of labor under contemporary Of course, access to facilities and equipment is precisely
capitalism. This is in opposition to our labor’s usual why many computer music producers foster connections to
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academia, submitting themselves to pickled traditions of party’s upper castes. Therefore, it is no surprise that
musical patronage and their caste systems. Today most immersion into the patronage system, with its combination
music departments feature two distinct employment groups of lifestyle dependency and fear of losing said lifestyle,
which, in Orwellian terms, function as inner party and outer results in run of the mill bourgeois conservatism even when
party. The inner party operates in relation to patronage as a living in poverty. The expressive voice of this conservatism,
servant class, whereas the outer party bears the hallmarks of to be heard at every academic concert and read in every
a conventional wage labor class. academic journal, is staunch Modernism. As Dont Rhine
recently commented, even when promising thesis
The inner party caste hierarchy is based on apprenticeship, statements emerge within academic discourse, the level of
in which people aspire to “move up” from initially unpaid analysis in the projects themselves is hampered by the fact
or underpaid positions as graduate student assistants to that they “only exist for the promotion of professional
post-doctoral assistants to professors to tenured professors. academics within a hermetically sealed institutional milieu,”
While those in the higher castes have a chance to make digressing into “the most banal observations” – a familiar
firmly middle class incomes (the luxury of which is often concern heard from countless non-academics and academics
tempered by excessive tuition debts, the loans for which in alike. Rhine continues:
the US can go well over $100,000), it is the equipment
budgets and expenditure accounts which present the Here is where the entirety of electroacoustic music is
greatest opportunities to all. Since most academic funds are founded on its own implicit but militant adherence to
not secured for personal use, equipment generally remains a social relation. Materiality, transformation, process,
the property of the institutions. However, the annual influx cut, rupture, negation and synthesis all become terms
of new equipment generates a constant trickle of obsolete in an aesthetics meant to serve a very particular social
technologies which drip down the caste tiers. Many relation and then claim ownership over those terms in
computers and other items find themselves liberated from the service of that social relation. (Meanwhile, another
institutions through disposal procedures or personal theory finds articulation and practice from an on
appropriation (technically speaking, theft). A key reason behalf of the struggles for a different social relation.)3
academic institutions are able to subject academic staff to
unfair schedule and labor practices rests in the inner party’s A lthough the Rymer Auditorium was not dry and
fear that upon leaving an institution they would be required insulated to the point of an anechoic chamber, the
to return possessions that have come to be considered sound was notably “unnatural,” emphasizing noises
“private”: CD’s, books, software, computers, accessories, generated by the piano itself. (In fact, the ambient sound
audio equipment, high-end lumbar support chairs, etc. was so unfamiliar that on more than one occasion during
lengthy recording sessions alone I experienced audio
Meanwhile, most members of the outer party do not submit hallucinations of disembodied human voices – ghostly
to (or have abandoned) the apprenticeship path, functioning intruders upon my materialist meditation.) Live
as full-time employees including technical support staff, performances of the project on three occasions to date
studio managers, and the like. Outer-party employees have (Tokyo, Paris and Vienna) have confirmed that acoustically
a complicated relationship to inner party apprentices such
as graduate students, in that their full-time employment
2 The staff of “New Aesthetics in Computer Music” inhabits a wide
gives them more economic power, while low-level inner
range of academic employment relations, lead by a senior lecturer
party apprentices occasionally exude more social sway. and Director of Music Technology Research (Tony Myatt), co-
Often, those in the outer party tend to be seen as technically organized by a professional curator and commercial audio producer
specialized custodial staff, more likely to be socially employed half-time as a research assistant (Mark Fell), and staffed by
grouped with general administration than with professors.2 two PhD students in the fortunate position of not having to do class
assistant work (Thom Blake and Peter Worth). This particular project
also involved programming support by the Computer Music
While graduate students have been known to strike for
Department’s full-time Systems Admin/Research Support
better working conditions, their organization around labor
Programmer (Matthew Paradis), and of course the participation of
issues is often weakened by the rationalization that their myself and other outside producers compensated by honorariums.
working conditions are part of an initiation rite to the inner 3 Dont Rhine, personal correspondence, August 22, 2009.
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the piece is not easily transferable (see “Live Performances frustration with one’s surroundings (or, I suppose, converse
to Date,” p.21). feelings of tremendous self-satisfaction for the chosen few)
strikes me as highly unlikely. It is in this manner that I
Given the rarified nature of the recording space, I wish to encourage listeners to consider themselves not only hearsay
stress that I was not interested in creating a recording of witnesses to my context and process of production, but
“technically pure” piano sounds, an accurate representation material witnesses to their own contexts and processes
of the recording process, or other anthropologically spanning some thirty-odd hours of file playback, however it
problematic audio fantasies. To the contrary, the key audio may be divided over various actions in various spaces over
process was the translation of those “rich” or very high-end any number of days or weeks. From listening to meditating
master recordings into a very “poor” (sonically and to working to playing to sleeping to cooking to cleaning to
economically) means of delivery: the MP3. In thinking of the eating to forgetting the stereo is on to defecating to paying
cultural insularity around much avant-garde music, it is bills to fucking or masturbating and so forth – in all
poignant that the only practical way for the final recording likelihood to be abandoned before completion.
to exist outside of the privileged and well-equipped
environment of the academic computer music establishment A lthough in terms of both tone and tempo the project
is through its destructive compression down to a format of was specifically composed with a target duration of
the masses. Even something as basic as creating a personal around thirty hours in mind, arriving at the actual final
data back-up of the high quality master recordings required length of the composition was complicated and subject to
the purchase of a dedicated external hard disk – an expense trial-and-error. When recording began, the faculty at York
I would normally not allow myself in relation to just one and I were under the impression that the size of an MP3 file
project. If someone wished to print up T-shirts summarizing was limited only by the capacity of the media holding it. For
this project, they might parody the old gift shop standard, example, any hard disk could be filled to capacity by a
“Somebody went to [insert town name] and all I got was this single MP3 file. Since I wished to make the piece available
lousy shirt,” so that it read, “Somebody had a 2-week for commercial distribution, I initially decided upon a UDF
computer music residency and all I got was this lousy MP3.” formatted 4.7GB DVD-ROM (<4.4GB active space) as a
target media format that was convenient in terms of
The audio qualities of the final MP3, however technically capacity, manufacturability and cost. Meanwhile, we began
refined or unrefined, constitute a document that serves as generating large test files of sine waves to see how they
the starting point for an act of listening. While I would like functioned. Although we found that “theoretically
to imagine that the absence of room reverberation in the functional” MP3 files can be generated to any size, we had
recordings may draw listeners’ attention toward the forgotten that FAT32 compliancy currently requires files to
reverberations and acoustic properties emerging from their be less than 4GB in order to be opened under Mac and
own places of listening, I realize such technical nuances will Windows operating systems. This limit had recently been
be unheard or ignored by most. Firstly, the piano is a very increased from <2GB in order to allow handling of larger
resonant and “wet” sounding instrument with it’s own video files. Therefore, the final <4GB file size presented here
reverberations, clouding the listener’s perception of is currently a real limitation, and not an aesthetic decision.
reverberations generated by a listening space. Secondly,
when listening we are conditioned to ignore the sounds of How the <4GB MP3 file size converts into time duration
the space around us as distractions or signs of inadequacy depends upon the bit rate at which the master recordings
(inadequate stereo equipment, inadequate listening space, are compressed into MP3. This was a major consideration in
inadequate sound insulation, inadequate apartment or conceptualizing a “full-length MP3 album,” since bit rate
home, overly sensitive neighbors, a noisy neighborhood, variations could mean a difference of 100+ hours in playing
inadequate headphones, inadequate car stereo, which is time. Based on contemporary commercial download audio
likely in an inadequate car, etc.). Such inadequacies are standards, as well as the recording time allowed by my
ultimately connected to class – that which is economically residency and the physical demands of the recording
possible or impossible for the listener. Therefore, when sessions, I opted for a maximum “near CD quality” 320kB/s
listening to a quiet piece such as this, the idea of completely fixed bit rate typical of most pay downloads. This resulted
avoiding any feeling of inadequacy, disappointment or in the shortest playback time possible. Given the project’s
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theme of “labor,” it was hoped that the recording could be to be duped by. On the other hand, there are very strong
as long as a 35 hour working week supported by many left- unions for songwriters, musicians and engineers which
wing parties and labor unions. However, at <4GB, a influence how major productions from film to opera to pop
320kB/s file translates to approximately 30 hours. Although are produced. They affect everything from work hours to
I did record enough materials to fill a 4.7GB DVD-ROM pay scales. My interaction with these unions has been
(approx. 31 and a half hours in <4.4GB active data space) for extremely limited. In addition to unions, music publishing
possible release when the <4GB limitation will surely be collection agencies such as BMI, ASCAP, JASRAC, GEMA
increased, the current MP3 file ends with the studio mixing and SOCAN also regiment the collection and disbursement
convention of a counter-structural fadeout. This fadeout of composer fees. For myself, as neither a unionized
stands in contrast to the multiple endings of the individual industry worker nor an independent with financial stability,
recording sessions which can be heard within the track it seems just as problematic to embrace traditional Leftist
itself. Ultimately, I was relieved that both FAT32 (<4GB) and iconography of the fetishized proletarian laborer (such as
DVD-ROM (<4.4GB) file size restrictions eliminated the Cornelius Cardew4 attempted to do) as it is to subscribe to a
poetic possibilities of a 35 hour recording at 320kB/s, since I belief in self-actualization which would cloak my economic
find it more interesting (and poetic in another sense) to have struggles in the lower class.
the project’s duration determined by the material limitations
of the media rather than by aesthetic choice. The lack of I have met people (mostly Europeans) who insist upon
choice in how long one has to work was a recurring focus of discussing “class” in terms other than economics – such as
meditation while working through long nights. the high-class status of impoverished aristocrats versus the
low-class status of wealthy ignoramuses like George W.
Sonically, the composition was influenced by several factors Bush. Accordingly, I have been told I am ousted from the
including: stylistic compatibility with conventionally lower class because my vocabulary betrays an expensive
marketed “meditative” and minimalist music (e.g., Brian educational background (in reality, public schooling in the
Eno’s “discreet music” and Terry Riley’s organ and Midwest US followed by a mediocre Fine Arts program that
feedback dervishes); ease of performer playability over long did more to stifle my current thinking than to foster it, and
periods of time (similar to the repetitive motions of which – in the absence of family assistance – I was only able
assembly lines); and a physical playing technique that to attend due to my lucky acceptance at a tuition-free
results in the emergence of minor – yet noticeable – tonal university, my obtaining additional financial scholarships,
and temporal variations (see “Playing the Score,” p.15). and my borrowing large amounts of money through the US
Ultimately, my playing technique was perhaps overly system of government subsidized student loans). While I
symptomatic of my lack of proper piano training. Much to understand the underhanded compliment of a friend
my surprise and his frustration, the well-trained closet wishing to argue I am a person of “class,” I find this type of
pianist Tony Myatt was utterly incapable of replicating my anti-economic class analysis extremely problematic in that it
hand position or playing the piece, twisting his hand in perpetuates conventional value concepts in which what is
contortions even more bizarre than my own. With a bit of “good” remains defined as “upper class,” and what is “bad”
melodramatic humor, one might say it was an example of a remains “lower class.” It denies the existence of rarified and
worker having experientially developed techniques complex (or if it helps some people accept my lower class
unknown by their more formally educated employer.
4 Cornelius Cardew (7 May 1936–13 December 1981) was an English
Drawing parallels with conventional concepts of “labor” as composer who, after becoming involved in left wing politics as an
a term related to unionization or labor movements is active member of the Communist Party of England (Marxist-
complicated within the music industry. On the one hand, Leninist) and People’s Liberation Music, abandoned the avant-garde
such parallels immediately seem suspect and insincere since in favor of “populist” music. I would describe his later music as the
audio equivalent of Maoist Social Realist painting, in which operatic
audio producers – “musicians” – are often mythologized as
voices sing praise of the impending worker’s revolution. As one
constituting a privileged non-labor class whose
would expect of Marxist-Leninist Communist parties, the result was
characteristics include self-determination, lifestyle choice, an abstract view of “populist” music devoid of both populism and
economic freedom, and personal fulfillment. A mythology listenability, and whose only possible mass appeal in the West was
many producers themselves consciously promote and wish kitsch.
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