Human Measures
by Myriam van Imschoot & Federico Protto
(release on the album ‘Touch’ organised by Tomoko Hojo, released December 3, 2021 on Dragon’s Eye Recordings)

From our desire of sounding together in times of distance, we discovered an instrument. The long tube allows us to keep a fair distance at one end, while diving into a trance-like play, with the outer ends of the tubes meeting within closer proximity. Its circulatory system functions in the shape of an 8: our mouths are playing the tubes, pushing air; the resulting sounds mix into the zoom recorder which amplifies and feeds them directly back into our headphones and ears. A crash and a melting point at once, the notions of touch and thus intimacy are expanded via somewhat mammalian breathing, whistling, piping, and blowing.

No matter how intriguing or profane the sonic outcome might be perceived, voicing the tubes enables us to enter into an amorphous zone, going beyond conventional (and maybe unconventional) bodily sound creation. It functions as a gate opening into a vibrating space of new possibilities and close encounters.

‘Human Measures’ has not only become a new field of corporeal instrumental experimentation, but also an extension of what ‘touch’ could be or feel like. We invite the listener to use sound-canceling headphones or a stereo sound system of good quality to enter this oscillating capsule of turning and wrapping sound inside-out.

From the Compilation text:
Seven artists reckon with isolation and subsistence in Dragon’s Eye Recordings’ latest release, titled Touch. Organized by Tomoko Hojo, the album collects six sound pieces by various artists who grapple with the restriction of physical contact through sound. Our ability to touch is a means of survival, an essential and intimate way of living and communing with others. So when it is taken away for the same reason we possess it—for the sake of staying safe—how can it be replaced? What can stand in?

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