On Entering the Portal of Hope

Dallas has performed at the London College of Music a couple of years ago with composer Chris Thorpe, in York with Chris Thorpe and Linda Merrick (2000); in Glasgow in 1999 as part of the Drift environmental sound art / acoustic ecology project, with Max Eastley and Helmut Lemke at Creswell Craggs several of years ago. His work has been selected, against an open world field, for inclusion in every themed sound art compilation for the past three years curated by Colin Fellows of the John Moores Liverpool University (Hope, Trace and Zero). Dallas' tracks have been released through Time Recording's EMIT series (abha - EMIT 2296, waterpump - EMIT 1197). He was included as a composer in the regrettably one-off "Music for Spaces" series on BBC Radio 3 some four years ago. In December 2000, Anya Bernstein, a Russian social anthropologist made a short video of his work at Lambley Dumble and in various locations around Nottingham City Centre at night (available on request). Dallas has written a more in-depth article: The Art of Location Binaural Performance, which was first published in the UK Journal of Free Improvisation: Rubberneck. It was subsequently reproduced on the US website for free improvisation The Improvisor. Dallas Simpson has over 50 hours of unreleased and unbroadcast live location binaural performance recordings. Dallas Simpson has spent over 10 years involved with recording and performing binaural soundworks. The subject of each recording varies from natural surroundings, to artificial environments. In addition to recording these soundscapes, Dallas Simpson has also performed live. A number of samples of his work are available for download from this site. Dallas is a professional CD Mastering Engineer trading under the name dallas MASTERS. About Binaural Sound Art Binaural sound art is both a particular style of recording and a particular approach. By inserting very high quality sub-miniature microphones into his ears, Dallas is able to sample his own human hearing and record what is known as "binaural sound" to conventional 2-channel stereo, with all the potency of a three dimensional surround sound experience when replayed on headphones. The approach is to engage the listener, through his own ears, in a guided experience of soundscape awareness and intuitive interaction with found and introduced objects. Movement through a location allows creative spatial choreography - the compositional arrangement of moving sounds in three dimensional space - with additional opportunities to create an unfolding narrative in time. For further reading, Dallas has also written a more in-depth article. These binaural soundworks are not always "quiet", some works contain periods of natural silence but there are also a few surprises and in some cases the sound is quite intense, but all the sounds are "real", not the product of electronic synthesis, sampling or manipulation. I often refer to them as "meditations" and my meaning is that we should think and listen, for in thinking we may pause to reflect on both what we may be missing in terms of an enriched aural experiencing our continual daily lives, and how, in the attainment of this richness, we may have to modify our own behaviour to access it. Consequently, these works are not an end in themselves that glorify the artist, but are an open invitation for each of us to establish a new and sensitive relationship with our environment, for it is only when we fully appreciate its worth that we will strive at all costs to preserve it.

Cfr. nn. Arch. 184. 63, 185.42