Submerged tape loops, by Alexandra Spence

Submerged tape loops

by Alexandra Spence

supported by

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

Download available in 24-bit/48kHz.

€5 EUR or more
Full Digital Discography

46

releases

Get all 46 Canti Magnetici releases available on Bandcamp and save 75%.

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Albe, Richiamare, Mondo Infotografabile, Coniugazioni, Ripari Minimi, Branes, l'ebbrezza delle grandi profondità, Musica Lacrimosa, and 38 more. , and , .

Purchasable with gift card

€50.13 EUR or more (75% OFF)
Alexandra Spence "Submerged tape loops" C12 + Book (20 pp. 14 x 20 cm)
Cassette + Digital Album
each cassette includes a 24 pages book (14 x 20 cm)

Includes unlimited streaming of Submerged tape loops via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 24-bit/48kHz.

Sold Out

	1.	Peng Chau A(bove) 01:03
	2.	Quarry Bay A(bove) 00:59
	3.	Sea Wall A(bove) 00:58
	4.	Tsim Sha Tsui A(bove) 00:57
	5.	Sharp Island A(bove) 00:59
	6.	Wan Chai A(bove) 01:01
	7.	Peng Chau B(elow) 01:01
	8.	Quarry Bay B(elow) 01:00
	9.	Sea Wall B(elow) 00:52
	10.	Tsim Sha Tsui B(elow) 00:54
	11.	Sharp Island B(elow) 01:03
	12.	Wan Chai B(elow) 01:04

about

Alexandra Spence "Submerged tape loops"
C12 - Canto 34

Submerged tape loops, to me, is more art project than album, it consists of a cassette and accompanying book of prose and photos - including a foreword by Yang Yeung. It’s part of an ongoing project in which I create 7-second tape-loop recordings and bury them in the earth, in the location at which they were recorded. The tapes are later dug up and placed back in their cassette casing for listening. The result of the time the loops spend embedded in the earth is the physical deterioration of the magnetic tape, and a degradation of the audio recording.
This iteration was developed whilst on a residency in Hong Kong in the summer of 2019. Surrounded by water I decided to submerge these tape loops instead. Six locations were chosen according to their proximity to a body of water, be it the Hong Kong harbour, two neighbouring islands, a fountain on newly reclaimed land, a bubbler next to fragments of the old sea wall... and six loops were recorded at each of these locations. The loops consist of two 7-second field recordings, one recorded above the water, and one recorded from within the water. After recording, each loop was removed from its cassette casing and submerged for one month in water collected from the location. Later, the loops were dried, placed back in their cassette casing and digitised. Burying and submerging the tape seems to give the places at which I record a sense of autonomy over their own soundings. I imagine this as a collaboration of sorts — I make a recording and the physical variables of each place and location alter it — asking and prompting a place to affect its own sounding. While the magnetic coating of the tape retains sonic remnants of the recorded sounds of the place, the physicality of the tape ribbon retains material remnants of the place: earth, sand, salt, other, which, in turn, impart audibly on the recording in the form of crackles, scratches, tape-warp, and hiss.

~Alexandra Spence

Special thanks to Yang Yeung for contributing such a moving and personal introduction for the booklet. Thank you to Fiona Lee and to soundpocket for sharing thoughts on field recording, and taking me to special locations. It was a very visceral and affecting time and i'm so grateful to all who shared with me during this very difficult period in Hong Kong. Thank you to Asialink Arts & the Hong Kong Arts Centre - this project was developed whilst on an Asialink Arts Creative Exchange with HKAC. Asialink Arts made this happen. Supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.

***

Alexandra Spence is an artist and musician living on Gadigal Country in Sydney, Australia. She creates performances, compositions, and installations based on (everyday) sound, and listening. Through her practice Alex reimagines the intricate relationships between the listener, the object, and the surrounding environment as a kind of communion or conversation. Her aesthetic favours field recordings, analogue technologies and object interventions.
Alex has performed, and presented her art/music worldwide including Vancouver Art Gallery; BBC Radio 3 & 4; Ausland, Berlin; Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid; Le Cube, Paris; Sound Forms Festival, HK; Ftarri, Tokyo; Metro Arts Gallery, Brisbane; MCA ARTBAR, Soft Centre, The Art Gallery of NSW, and Liveworks Festival, with Liquid Architecture. She regularly collaborates with MP Hopkins, and has released music with Room40, Longform Editions, Canti Magnetici, and More Mars.

alexandraspence.net

credits

released January 29, 2022

Limited edition of 50
www.cantimagnetici.com

license

subtotal
taxes calculated at checkout

about

Canti Magnetici Italy

Based somewhere in South Italy.
Canti Magnetici focuses on the research, through anomalous sounds, words and images, in the fields of natural and cultural phenomena, states of being and sciences.

cantimagnetici.com

contact / help

Contact Canti Magnetici

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Submerged tape loops, you may also like:

A Necessary Softness
by Alexandra Spence

supported by 20 fans who also own “Submerged tape loops”

Immersing myself in this tonight - takes me straight back to Alexandra's performances in Hong Kong! Thank you! Nick
go to album
Everywhere at the end of time
by The Caretaker

supported by 17 fans who also own “Submerged tape loops”

This is my absolute favorite album of all time, words can not even begin to describe how much I love it. It nails the concept of dementia as an album perfectly 100/10. I don't know if I could find anything better than this. rod
go to album
Shutting Down Here
by Jim O'Rourke

supported by 16 fans who also own “Submerged tape loops”

Everything in its right place. Or not. Circadiansongs
go to album
Amaro
by Jeremy Young

The new album from electroacoustic composer Jeremy Young is draped in a sense of mystery, tones flickering gently, like an old home movie. Bandcamp New & Notable May 9, 2021
go to album
Cataclysmic System Binding Loss
by Carbon In Prose

Shards of static & distortion crash against disarmingly beautiful piano & synth melodies on this riveting new record from Carbon and Prose. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 30, 2022
go to album
I thought U thought I
by St Celfer™

Always inventive, always challenging sound artist St. Celfer returns with another album of glitchy experiments to dazzle & fascinate. Bandcamp New & Notable Jun 10, 2024
go to album
a veil, the sea
by Alexandra Spence

supported by 15 fans who also own “Submerged tape loops”

like an exploration of a fragile world that is more endangered with each passing day...beautiful, saddening, honest ps. the tapes are beautiful, and thanks for the cute stickers ;) Pala Hux
go to album

Streaming + Download

€5 EUR or more

Full Digital Discography

€50.13 EUR or more (75% OFF)

Alexandra Spence "Submerged tape loops" C12 + Book (20 pp. 14 x 20 cm)
Cassette + Digital Album

Sold Out

about

credits

license

Shopping cart