Christopher Whitley – Solos

‘Quiet, Please’ is an 80mm CDr release, documenting the degeneration of society’s sonic landscape through location recordings, tape-loops and double bass… ”Quiet, Please deals with the issue of ‘noise’ as a polluting yet ultimately unavoidable element in an acoustic space, through the medium of lo-fi location recording and magnetic tape deterioration. Inspired by R. Murray Schafer’s The Tuning of the World (1977), the composition draws upon the concept of an ever-degrading sonic environment caused by humanity’s technological development. The affliction of noise pollution is something which, in all likelihood, cannot be avoided if society is to continue to progress – noise is therefore inevitable. For Quiet, Please the location setting of a library was chosen for its cultural significance in the issue of noise control. Firstly, the concept of education and learning ties in with the topics surrounding human progress: the process of formal education is fundamental to the technical and social advancements causing this shift from high to low-fidelity soundscape. Secondly, in the case of the recordings made in this piece, the library seems to act as an example of the impossibility of complete noise eradication. The library – which is generally accepted as a quiet place of study – in fact, contains a great deal of noise pollution, which is then amplified by the cultural expectation of ‘silence’…” ~ Ithaca Trio, 2011 Packaged in a library returns card, this release is limited to 75 copies for the world.