Design takes many forms, and resonates in unexpected ways. John Blackstone has a case in point:
Steven Baber is a designer with a difference. He designs sounds – coaxing music from some unlikely objects.
“Are you listening all the time?” Blackstone asked. “Walking down the street, sitting down in a restaurant?”
“Constantly, constantly,” said Baber. “It can be distracting. I have to sleep with earplugs in.”
Baber lets his surroundings serve as his orchestra and his inspiration: “It all came from when I was a little kid hearing the spokes of my bike and imagining, ‘Oh, I wish I could play that like I could play these other instruments.” Lately he has been doing just that: making music from sounds created by bicycle parts. “There’s something really exciting and fascinating about discovering these sounds that maybe nobody’s ever made on a bike,” Baber said.
“Nobody was ever obsessive enough to make it on a bike before,” said Blackstone.
“Maybe!” he laughed.
Baber spent months tediously experimenting, and meticulously recording, searching for just the right notes. He amassed a couple hundred different sounds.
Then comes composing: “It’s about layering these sounds together to see how they work.”
You can sample some of Baber’s bicycle sounds by clicking on the audio embed below.
