Time Off Magazine April 2007

TOM HALL
EMERGING FROM rural Tasmania to study multimedia interstate and abroad, Brisbane-based
new-media artist Tom Hall is, in his own words, ’A keen observer of observation; a surveyor
of surveillance’.
"Really, it’s just a term for using mixed mediums with the latest technology," Hall explains
of the term ’new-media artist’. "A lot of the processes I use have been around for centuries,
but it’s the way in which I use them that make my work unique, giving me the ability to
explore new concepts. [French artist] Duchamp was once a new-media artist."
After relocating to Canberra at the turn of the century for tertiary reasons, Hall’s journey
was greatly shaped by a year spent studying in Japan.
"I originally started a degree in Photomedia with a bit of video," he says. "Japan gave me a
fresh start - there was a lot of self-reflection and it was then that I decided I really wanted
to take art seriously. In Japan I studied video and sound because they had no photo
department, and this almost forced diversification turned out to be very useful for me.
"Now when I come up with a concept for a project I can work out which mediums it can be
portrayed in best, rather than jamming concepts into the same medium all the time. It
means I have more than one feather in my cap."
Hall’s crowning achievement to date is his new album Fluere, which consists of experimental
ambient sound compositions that are completely derived from sounds recorded at the Story
Bridge.
"Recording Fluere was an awesome experience," Hall recalls. "Not at all taxing, despite
being very meticulous in where I gathered sounds. I was already in love with the bridge
before I started and now I just love it more. I miss going there all the time; I find it very
meditative to hang out there."
Tom Hall launches Fluere at Bowerbird 3 at The Paddington Substation Saturday
Apr 22.

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Fox Digitalis
http://www.digitalisindustries.com/foxyd/reviews.php?which=2710

All the basic sounds for "Fluere" originate from the Story Bridge in Brisbane, Australia, and were then processed and shaped into nine individual compositions, oscillating between speaker-shattering organic drone rumble and quasi-rhythmic, reverb-saturated ambient textures. Hall’s music vaguely recalls Thomas Kˆner’s classic 1990s isolationist works or even the most reduced moments of some releases on Basic Channel, yet it is rawer in nature and develops its own nuances, thus sounding neither outdated nor eclectic. There is a weird in-between quality to the sounds on this release, as the digital processing is very apparent throughout, while the lo-fi character of the basic material is still present in the final tracks. This goes along well with an overall structural simplicity; Hall usually employs just a few elements per track, and allows them to take their time to unfold their qualities. Luckily, despite extensively manipulating the sounds Hall keeps in mind their source and knows how to weave occasional faint yet evocative traces of the sounds of wind or of cars passing over the bridge into the fabric of his tracks. "Fluere" is actually at its best when those sounds merge with the stark drones, while the rhythm-oriented moments seem less convincing at times. There is a rough or even crude quality to the way Hall processes and presents his sounds which does work well and clearly distinguishes this release from the bulk of works dealing with manipulated field recordings, but could nevertheless benefit from some refinement here and there. 6/10 -- Magnus Schaefer (29 August, 2007)


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Vital Weekly

TOM HALL - FLEURE (CD by Nightrider Records)
Australia, I’m sure I noted this before, is from the outside a very vibrant country when it comes to
experimental. Here is one Tom Hall, of whom we never heard before, but who got his CD
sponsored by the Australian Government, mainly because he does something that relates
directly to the country: his ’Fleure’ CD contains sounds entirely using sounds from Story Bridge
in Brisbane. The cars passing and the air that makes the bridge vibrate. Hall picks it up with a
couple of microphones all over the construction of the bridge. It’s a bit hard to tell what he does
electronically, but I’m sure there is some extreme filtering going, and/or extensive use of
computer plug ins, but it enables Hall to move away from the pure sonic landscapes and go into
the world of music. If one compares this with say John Hudak ’Brooklyn Bridge’, then one
notices that whereas Hudak makes a highly minimal soundscape, whereas Hall, through his use
of loops and electronics has something that gets close the Chain Reaction minimal techno
sound. The industrial sounds of the motorway becoming a dance floor. Well, of course not
really, but it’s has the muffled, mechanical dance, however with a strong backbeat. Another
major difference is that Hall produces nine quite different pieces of music, rather than one long
sound scape, which makes this altogether quite a nice, conceptual release that is somehow
roughly shaped, but those raw edges adds an extra flavor to it. (FdW)
Address: http://www.tomhall.com.au


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Bagatellen


Though sourced from what would generally be considered field recordings, Tom Hall’s "Fluere" has a distinct air
of composition about it; in essence, it strikes me as closer to musique concrete. The source in question is the
Story Bridge in Brisbane, Australia and the sounds utilized have evidently been culled from a massive catalog
compiled by Hall over the course of a year or so. Thus reconfigured, the disc sets up an interesting dichotomy
for the listener. You can’t really hear it as a "field recording"; the artifice is too clear and there’s little real sense
of natural flow and atmosphere. So you tend to neglect the origins of the sounds themselves, instead focusing
on how they’re organized, sequentially, in opposition, etc. The instances where those two streams imperceptibly
merge are where the real juice resides.
This placed me in something of a quandary when I found myself more interested in the resonances of a given
sound or series of sounds than the manner in which they were arrayed on the track in question. The bridge, not
surprisingly, is a trove of deep, cavernous tones, recoverable from contact mics placed at various points. The
interactive vibrations caused by vehicular traffic echo deeply into the structure producing booming throbs and
dull roars, augmented by dozens of other, less bass-oriented tones occupying hiss and click territory. You can
easily imagine sidling up to a stanchion, laying your ear on the metal and luxuriating in the sonic bath. Hall
collects these elements, chopping and dicing them into more clearly directional compositions, constructing
various rhythmic patterns (though these tend not to stay in one groove overly long, a good thing), overlaying
higher pitched washes and patterns, often lining the bottom with a selection from those hyper-deep pulses. For
this listener, the results are more successful the more expansive the end product, the less hemmed in by
rhythmic constraints, the more—too the extent I can determine this, which may be minimal—the original sounds
are allowed to be themselves. This occurs most strongly on tracks like "Fluere through the Metal Hair", where
the huge rumbles seem to billow, cloudlike, into the atmosphere and, in a different sense, on the ensuing
"3,227,416" where the compounded traffic sounds, from engine growls to bridge-segment tire clicks, coalesce
into a an imposing, and not a little bit terrifying, mass. "Undulated Fluctus Wave" also creates a thick, sweeping
wash of low scrapes and repetitive, metallic echoes that build into an impressive, almost monstrous vortex, the
bridge assuming the guise of living, respiring behemoth. On pieces like this one, where Hall succeeds in
concocting a visceral entity apart from the source, you really get the sense of the possibilities in this approach.
I’ll be curious to see where he goes from here. In the meantime, fans of that nexus between natural (even if
manmade) sounds and their deconstruction and reconstitution can find a good deal to chew on during "Fluere".


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EARlabs Review

Only quite recently we reviewed the CD ’Fleure’ by Tom Hall from
Australia. That CD used sounds from the Story Bridge in Brisbane. His new
CD, ’Floats’ doesn’t seem to have such a conceptual angle, except that ’all
tracks are extracts from live recording sessions consisting of processed
keyboard’. I am not sure if keyboard here is meant to be the same as
piano, but somehow I don’t think so. More an electronic keyboard of
whatever nature. Things start out alright: glitchy ambient electronics,
gliding tones, that sort of thing. Warm, delicate, all those keywords apply
here. All fine, but after the fourth track, I sort of thought, it could be using
something extra, something to happen, move out of the some sketch like
material which remains the same throughout. Unfortunately that doesn’t
happen. Things remain the same until the full eight tracks are completed.
That is a pity since the material itself, a few pieces are quite alright, but
as a whole it didn’t strike me as particular strong.

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Gazeta

Recording over a span of time on Brisbane’s Story Bridge,
to put it simply, "Fluere" is an investigative report. A
multi-media artist, Australian Tom Hall has been involved
in video, photography as well as sound art for the last five years. His love
for one medium doesn’t necessarily exclude the other mediums, which is
well represented in this project. Because Hall understands the art of the
bridge, the love for architecture comes clearly through. It’s intimate
knowledge of the structure that I hear all over this recording. Sometimes
Hall just placed contact mics inside the steel beams of the structure, while
at other times things were recorded in a straight forward manner.
"Supportare" features a deep, bass humming sound that may have been
recorded inside of a steel beam. The bass only increases on the next track.
"Metallon" has an array of vibrating sounds that entice the ear as well as
disturb the mind. "Undulated Fluctus Wave" has a hollow, toilet-bowl like
sound that starts to resemble fingernails on chalk near the middle. By the
end of this same piece, you can distinctly hear sound of zooming cars
racing across the bridge in wet rain puddles. Everywhere you turn, the
recording is a mind blast for the ears. Like one of those old radio plays, let
is grow on you and "Fluere" is bound to become a classic.


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Loop

Page 1 of 2
http://www.loop.cl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=300&Itemid=27
http://www.loop.cl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=300&Itemid=27

videasta que reside en Brisbane,
Australia. Graduado en Bellas
Artes en The Australian National
University, ha estado trabajando
hace más de cinco años en
varias artes como la fotografía,
el video y las instalaciones
sonoras.
Hall ha editado el CD "Irashai
Mase" [New Forms, 2004] en
Japón cuando estudiaba en la
Kyoto Seika University,
"Concrete Cars" en 2006, que
es un paisaje sonoro producido
a partir de sonidos encontrados
obtenidos de varios lugares en
Tasmania.
"Fluere" está basado en la
historia del puente Story Bridge
de Brisbane que se apertura en
1940 y es la estructura de acero
más larga fabricada en
Australia.
Hall conecta micrófonos de
contacto en las estructuras del
puente, por lo que las
vibraciones son capturadas, el
soplido del viento parece líneas
de bajo y los sonidos de los
motores de los automóviles
pasa rápidamente digitalmente
procesado. Música pulsante,
intensa, ruidosa y muy creativa

Tom Hall is a sound and video
artist based in Brisbane,
Australia. He has a Fine Arts
degree at The Australian
National University and has
been working over 5 years in
various art forms like
photography, video and sound
installations.
Hall released the ’Irashai Mase’
[New Forms, 2004] CD in Japan
while he was studying at Kyoto
Seika University, ’Concrete Cars’
in 2006 which is live
soundscape produced from
found sound captured from
various places in Tasmania and
an upcoming collaboration with
guitarist Dan Lewis
’Fluere’ is a sound album based
on the Story Bridge, Brisbane
which was opened in 1940 after
five years construction and is
the largest steel bridge in
Australia.
Hall put contact microphones on
the structures of the bridge so
vibrations are captured, the
wind blows and sounds like
baselines, and the sound of the
car engines pass quite fast
digitally reprocessed. Pulsating
music, intense, noisy and very
creative the way composition is
various places in Tasmania and
an upcoming collaboration with
guitarist Dan Lewis
’Fluere’ is a sound album based
on the Story Bridge, Brisbane
which was opened in 1940 after
five years construction and is
the largest steel bridge in
Australia.
Hall put contact microphones on
the structures of the bridge so
vibrations are captured, the
wind blows and sounds like
baselines, and the sound of the
car engines pass quite fast
digitally reprocessed. Pulsating
music, intense, noisy and very
creative the way composition is

29/01/08 4:26 PM
loop - Tom Hall
en la forma de componer.
made of.


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Courier Mail

STOP complaining about the Story Bridge’s traffic snarls and listen to its beauty, sound artist
Tom Hall urges.
Hall has spent the last year recording sounds the bridge makes and turning it into a CD of hauntingly
beautiful ambient music called Fluere.
"People don’t realise how amazing intricate (the bridge sounds) are," Hall says."At night times,
especially, it is quite rhythmic as cars are more evenly placed as they cross the bridge. I say it’s
chaotically rhythmic. It floats in and out of being in time.".
"I am passionate about the bridge and it’s been photographed a lot, so I wanted to do something in a
medium that hadn’t been used in conjunction with the bridge."
He recorded sounds from all over the structure, including hooking up microphones to its steel frame to
capture its vibrations.
"It’s almost like hearing the inner soul of the bridge. That’s not something that you hear with the
human ear, vibrations that travel through the bridge 24-7 can only be heard in that manner," he said.
"Sounds from underneath the bridge are quite basey. On top of the bridge you get the merging of cars
and vibrations so there is a whole frequency range up there. And then there is just the ambient
sounds of cars on the bridge. "