into_the_breaks

Innacitymisfit house mix 2000 Mix was heavily influenced by Larry Levan. However, it was the encouragement from my friends at Tower Records in the mid-90's that got me started making mix-tapes in Chicago before I moved out west. Listening to it now, I enjoy the selection (partly because I had to sell most of those records), not so much the mixing due to the bargain basement gear and skill level. Dj'ng was and still is part of my creative practice. It keeps me sharp and inspired. And yes, like one of my colleagues said when I did a set at the SFAI grad studios ten years ago, "I am playing for myself". I do it because I love the music with hopes that you will too.

Jackpot++ Jackpot++ by normanlong Recording from the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, IN

electro-acoustic dubcology I.2: arboretum trail/pond/zucker shrubs These are recordings from the Cornell Plantations, Arboretum Trail, Pond and Zucker Shrubs. Summer of 2007. Originally I planned to heavily process the sounds and render them to a drone to accompany listeners as they walk about the arboretum. Sort of like a live field recording mash-up.

Gardening at Night (an ambiguous heterotopia) Pt. 1 Video shot by Norman W. Long and Kathleen Quillian in 2002 Soundtrack - Mixed and edited Field recording from San Franciscos Mission District and radio scanner. Sounds processed by Leafcutter John's Forester program.

Re:combinant Window 2002 from normanwlong on Vimeo . Re:Combinant Window 2002 site specific sound installation San Francisco Arts Commission, San Francisco, CA  February 2002 This video is from an installation from 2002 at the San Francisco Arts Commission's Grove Street Galleries. I proposed a sound installation where I combined the history of the gallery and the present. Somewhat like a palimpsest with the stacked furniture, signage, etc and sound from a radio scanner picking up sounds from the area. Many Thanks to Kathleen, Julio and Natasha

Untitled Ithaca (Top of Hill) Sound pieces for Collegetown and the Ithaca Commons Different sections of Ithaca are defined not only by their architecture but by their sounds. Sound signals, such as buses, sirens, music from Collegetown Bagels and Rullof’s, as well as creek noise help define Collegetown, while other signals, such as the fountain, music from Simeons, pedestrian and vehicular traffic, create a distinctive acoustic profile of the Commons.  Moreover these sounds change with the seasons.  Analyzing sound elements—signals, soundmarks, acoustic horizons, profiles, and keynotes—complements design analysis but also provides a narrative about the local community.  The sounds we listen to become part of our own stories or lives and affect us in ways similar to language.  With the help of digital editing, I have come up with two sonic narratives. Composing the works is no different than editing a film. It’s the juxtapositions that make the pie...

Textures & Gestures 1 Textures and Gestures - Presbyterian Hill 2005 10:46 Sounds from Presbyterian Hill section of a cemetery in Trumansburg, NY.  Fall 2005. Processed sounds of contact mic, gravestones, leaves, trees, lichens, stairs.

Oceanic Memories 2005 2005 16:21 min Featuring the sounds of the Pacific Ocean, Short-wave Radio, buried tape recorder in sand, and a drum circle all enhanced with digital sound processing. The title refers to the term oceanic which is a psychological term, referring to a womb-like experience, womb-like, as in being engulfed in a sea of noise. Oceanic generally means resembling the ocean in apparent limitlessness in extent or degree (the American Heritage dictionary). I composed this with the thought of making connections to a psychological past and a cultural past (referring to African Rhythms and the Middle Passage).

In Transit: Chinese New Year in Black History Month This piece was came about during a time where I would walk to my grad studio at the San Francisco Art Institute from the BART station downtown. Usually I would walk through China Town on my way to the studio. I had made several recordings of my walk and mixed and processed them for this piece. The majority of the source material came from the Chinese New Year festivities in 2005. The accompanying article reflects on Ellison's Invisible Man, black subjectivity, double-consciousness, creativity and listening.  Thanks to Kathleen Quillian.

Live at Southern Exposure-NPR's "Catch and Release" Program Oct 8, 2004 This piece is from a live performance from 2004 at Southern Exposure in San Francisco. The performance was broadcast live as part of Neighborhood Public Radio's residency. This is a solo work where I played the recording of my commute from Oakland to the SoEx, along with live scanner sounds and some other elecrtonic sounds I burned to CD. Equpiment used: I mini-disc player, radio scanner, cd player and radio-shack dj mixer. Much thanks, love and respect goes to Jon, Lee and Michael.

Welcome to my blog! I will be posting links to my past and current works here. A Brief Statement About My Work: My art/studio practice involves gardening, collecting, performing, recording to create objects, environments, situations in which the audience and myself are engaged in an open-ended dialogue about memory, space, value, silence and the invisible. My studies in landscape architecture expanded the scale of my practice as an artist/composer. As a designer my goal is to create spaces reflecting history, culture and diversity of community and ecology. Art and altars of Africa and the African-Americas, Japanese garden design electro-acoustic composition and acoustic ecology have influenced much of the work I have produced. The processes involved in my practice lie within the area of field recording, electro-acoustic composition and dub technique. As an artist and designer, landscape - especially in an urban context - is a complex matrix of systems, communities and netw...