Subviola is an audio collaboration between Hilmar Bjarnason and David W. Halsell. Their initial recording, No Defects explores the intersections and boundaries of culture, noise, and place by manipulating field recordings from urban and rural spaces of the American Midwest.
Field recordings by the duo of railroad locomotives, country meadows, industrial spaces, and Appalachian folk musicians were transformed into washes of protracted and convolving sounds punctuated by disjointed rhythms and vocalizations. These recordings were manipulated and combined with in-studio recordings and experiments by Subviola.
This work sought to reflect the artists’ experiences while living in the economically depressed post-industrial “rust belt” and the widespread disillusion in the myths of American industrial and social history. The ironic title for the recordings, No Defects, comes from the most common radio messages in the automated system of status reports of railroad lines.
Track Listing:
- East Liberty
- Gallitzin
- Ryerson Station
- Carnegie Steam Tunnel
- No Defects