Image: “Looks like our dryer needs its meds” by Chuck Gregory

 

This was a difficult challenge but honoured for Museleon to be included on this At Water’s Edge programme, to create a piece of music using only Laundry sounds and no synths.

As Museleon, I set myself monthly challenges and in 2017 it was to create short sound pictures based on haiku’s. For the month of December, I created a piece based on the sounds of my washing machine – Merry Washmas – but it was still recognisably washing machine sounds. For this challenge for Radhaus ‘At Water’s Edge’, I decided to take the original sounds and try to create something that didn’t sound like my washing machine.
The result is Storm. I imagined an isolated arctic station being bombarded by a fierce storm causing metal to swing, creak, scrape and bend, wires to reverberate and howls through windows. A beacon calls out to the rest of the world.

Kudos to the artists who stepped up to this challenge and to Rebekkah Hilgraves for setting these and supporting independent artists on her radio show.
Might have another go : )

The challenge…
Create a track whose base elements consist solely of sounds you would hear in a laundry room. You can alter the sounds however you like, but you may only use these sounds, and no additional instruments or synths…
The results…
Five artists came forward with tracks, and three of those artists supplied two tracks each! Laundry sounds apparently lend themselves to long form, and the results are as varied as the artists themselves.
The Challenge Tracks:
“Resonant Cycles” – Thomas Park
“Drone To Dry” – Thomas Park
“Storm” – Museleon
“Laundri Dei, a Voluntary” – Glenn Sogge
“Tide Pod Coma” – Skoddie
“Underground Laundering” – Skoddie
“Machine Washable” – Carbonates On Mars
“SpacedOutLaundry” – Carbonates On Mars
The Library Tracks:
“Household apocalypse” – Altocumulus – Household apocalypse (2010)
“Washing Day” – Lucette Bourdin – Drum-atic Atmospheres (2009)
“In Memoriam ~ My Old Ordinary Life” – Slate – Clean Slate (2010)
“It Was Clay, Not Mud” – Petal – The Last Season (2009)

 

Artwork is Storm in my Washer by Museleon.