Background

The working relationship between Philip Brophy and Philip Samartzis goes back many years. Both were involved in many of the projects released on the Present label and both lectured in Media Arts at RMIT University in Melbourne (Philip Samartzis still does). Ph2 is their collaborative venture.

Ph2 projects arise from the opportunity to present or perform, at which point a project is developed. Surround-sound exploration is central to most of these works, combined with ways in which the two can conceptualize, score and improvize. Most works start off as pure experiments to see what outcomes will arise. Successive performances then gel the work into a form, which is then at some stage recorded in multi-speaker configuration. Some of these works eventually found their release through Sound Punch Records.

Credits

Samples, keyboards & drum-pads - Philip Brophy
Audio recordings, processing & mixing - Philip Samartzis

2004

IMMERSION 4 - Westspace, Melbourne

Overview

Following Philip Samartzis' recent ideas to improvize with extremely minimal textures and tones, Silence + Cry is an exploration of how his operation of a set of sine-wave CDs and antique analogue synth modules can interface with Philip Brophy's improvization on a glass vase full of water connected to a metal bowl. Phil B plays continually, moving from the glass vase full of water to the metal bowl, performing dronal ringing textures by fast-paced 4-finger tapping. The piece is based at the very low threshold of these acoustic events, with Phil S's synth and CD tones emerging from the acoustic ringing and resonance of the glass vase and metal bowl.

Technical

Duration of the work is approximately 15 minutes.