Introduction to Sound Arts

Cedrik Fermont

Sound Arts Visiting Practitioners Series

Cedrik Fermont borns in Zaire and does not limit him self in becoming a sound-artist. He is also a composer, musician, mastering engineer, author, independent researcher, concert organiser and curator who operates in the field of electroacoustic, noise, electronic, experimental and improvised music.He released music under a wide spectrum of aliases, including Alien Vegan Sect, C-drík, D-Drik, F-Drik, H-drík, I-drík, J-drík, Kirdec, M.E.3, O-Drík, Q-drík, R-Drik, T-drik, V-drík, Y-drík and many more. ‘Most of them are strongly connected to various experimental sounds, break-core, acid or industrial.

Cedrik has a strong focal point at soundarts in Asia and promotes electronic, experimental and noise music from Asia and Africa and at a lower extent Latin America. Besides, he has performed and collaborated with artists across Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. He also performs in several projects such as Axiome, Tasjiil Moujahed, Marie Takahashi & Cedrik Fermont, etc.

“In a hyper-connected world I think that the main obstacle is not totalitarianism, but poverty. And even poverty itself is not entirely preventing alternative musicians from making what they wish to do. It’s a complex phenomenon.”

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There was a very interesting part based on ‘noise is power’ with Cedrick as I was going through his interview. He wondered noise was some kind of energy and also quite emotional and sensitive. It often generated a strong positive feeling with it loudness. Noise can be much more than pure distortion, rough sounds and feedback. He enjoyed sitting at the edge of a river’s strong flow or a fall, or stood next to some factories or construction sites, or listened to a plane’s reactor; He also often recorded sounds when he traveled by train and listened to those banging metal parts and stock his ear against the fuselage of a plane while flying and listened to the drones the aircraft generated. He also played with noises just like playing the life, just mixing and recording the most outstanding stuffs and edited them into one piece randomly under control.

Composed in Cape Town, South Africa. 
Field recordings made in Mbabane, eSwatini (insects and batrachian, 2020) and Nairobi, Kenya (insects, rain and water, 2018). 
Gong recorded in Singapore at The Observatory Studio (2016). 

If you find yourself locked in a small space, whether it is because of a quarantine, or you have been jailed or you are sick and cannot move or you travel in the vacuum of space towards Mars or else, you will most likely miss the sounds of nature).

credits

released March 20, 2020 

Composed, recorded and mastered by Cedrik Fermont, 20 March 2020. 

I love the sound piece from Cedrik Fermont which is ”Recordings for quarantined people and those flying to Mars” gathering live field recordings, because it let me feel cozy and release physically and mentally. I had a better understanding on how insects attacked with the nature when I discovered deeply and I had a better listening when I felt sleepy. It felt like Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR), a tingling sensation that typically begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine. A pleasant form of paresthesia, it has been compared with auditory-tactile synesthesia and may overlap with frisson.

According to Cedrik, field recordings seem more vivid than a fixed image or a film. He would love to compare them a bit with a book. A book doesn’t limit your imagination, such as a film does.