Listening and Reading Response 7

For the reading and video for this week, the focus was on Atau Tanaka and how he uses the sensorband to create different frequencies. At first, I found his performance very interesting in the way he expresses sound with movement of his wrists and arms to alter the sound. I found the wind sounds most expressive as it appeared that he was actually moving the air around him to create this sound. In addition, there was depth to the wind as it could be altered by how close the sensorbands were to one another. While the article doesn’t really mention it, I think that there may also be a tension sensor within the sensor bands as Atau seemed to have tense arms in the 3rd part of his performance to create the crackling sound. From this, I think that they are reinnovating how our body can be used to create sound. In accordance with his approach of postmodernism towards his music, it can be seen that the sound he creates is less expressive in the sense that it’s smooth tones, but rather it’s sharper tones. The transitions are also more abrupt where there isn’t wind and crackling combination for transition, but an immediate crackling. This essentially shows the postmodern style that the text mentioned for designing his music.