Editor’s Note:  Welcome to Sounding Out!‘s fall series titled “Sound and Play,” where we ask how sound studies, as a discipline, can help us to think through several canonical perspectives on play. While Johan Huizinga had once argued that play is the primeval foundation from which all culture has sprung, it is important to ask where sound fits into this construction of culture; does it too have the potential to liberate or re-entrench our social worlds? SO!’s regular contributor Maile Colbert interviews sound artist Andrea Parkins and gets her to talk about her creative process, and the experience of playing with sound, composition, and instruments.–AT

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In 2003, working towards my graduate degree in Integrated Media at California Institute for the Arts, I met and worked with a visiting artist by the name of Andrea Parkins, with whom I became a friend and colleague. Although I’ve been familiar with…

Back in February, we reviewed Kate Carr‘s sound map Lost in Doi Saket, and expressed our desire for a physical release.  Our wish has just been granted in an unusual way; Overheard in Doi Saket is presented as a sound card in a case the size as a cheese cracker, along with a booklet the size of a coin.  This isn’t what we expected, but it’s really neat.  The album feels like a secret document smuggled out of the country, and well it could have been, concealed under the tongue.

The most obvious difference between the sound map and the physical release is the ability to play it through a home stereo.  One is immediately immersed in the sounds of Thailand: a motorcycle rides between speakers while the locals converse and music plays.  Carr calls this overture “Snatches”, which seems apt; it’s a playful introduction to the aural…

Another excellent release from the ever-reliable Infinite Greyscale, Body Sound continues the label’s tradition of offering creative music on 10″ colored vinyl.  A fellow reviewer called the release “slightly baffling,” but it’s not; it’s beautiful.  The unique nature of the recording deserves the special treatment that it receives here.  The cover image is particularly appealing: graphic art in the Charles Burns vein that offers an indication of what to expect inside.

The hand, the foot, the floor … the movements of choreographer Cuauhtemoc Peranda are amplified and rearranged by Herndon into an alluring eight-minute piece.  One begins to think of modern dance in general, realizing that the typical observer is caught up in sight rather than sound.  By removing visuals, Peranda and Herndon demonstrate the power of the aural.  This is ballet for the ears, with heavier feet.

While taps are also part of the equation, this isn’t tap dancing; and…