phil thomson

 

bio:
ph!L th0m50n has been working and playing with sound (not to mention letting sound work on and play with him) for over 12 years. His recent work has moved into the digital realm and investigates the "digitality" of computer-generated sound. The piece "synat", (from an abbreviation of "synthetic" and "natural", or "synthesized nature" or "synthetically naturalized", etc.), composed for the acidfake EP series, is an integration of digital sound with a more organic aesthetic. While all the sounds in this piece are digitally synthesized, many of them vaguely suggest "natural" sounds, such as insects, waterfalls or VLF radio (very-low-frequency radio waves emitted by the earth's magentosphere). These sounds co-exist in an uneasy tension with more hyper-synthetic timbres, suggesting a conflict between the "natural" and "artificial" worlds. "synat" also alludes to the digital mediation of much of our contact with the "natural" world, in the form of, for example, new-age "environmental" recordings, while our actual natural (and sonic) environment is in rapid decline. "synat" invites the listener to take pleasure in the "naturality" of these digital sounds, but also to question what constitutes this "naturality", and to ask after what may become of the piece's implied sound sources in a "nature" mediated by digital spectacle.


discography:

single-artist releases:
speaker/interlocutor (xenophony recordings)
scan (s'agita)

gintas k/phil thomson - long one/synat split ep (acid fake)
the bill jarboe remixes (ctrl+alt+canc)

comps:
difficult music for difficult people (mangenerated)