we started a library
10 artists.
over 9 hours of footage.
after much hype, we finally launched our library to the public with drop featuring 10 recordings from artists across the world:
baltimore, md
dortmund, germany
aomori, japan
we officially launched this repository with our first season 1 drop on June 1st, 2023, with a portal available to download audio and video files for each recording. what started out as a recording project at the Peabody Conservatory is now an open-access collection of new-music sounds, licensed for use under Creative Commons.
we – cameron, tyler, and sebastian – started this library under the following ideals.
I. THE PEOPLE WE ARE WILL NOT BE FORGOTTEN
I. THE PEOPLE WE ARE WILL NOT BE FORGOTTEN
the heart of sounds, of music, and of performance will always be the people that bring them to life. traditional sample libraries attempt to derealize this fact and strip the performer away from their connection to the instrument. this trend extends beyond music into the technological grasp over our lives, our labor, and our love.
dex digital sample library combats this with our focus on documenting the person performing over capturing the sounds dispelled from their instrument. what we offer is a collection of humans and what they wish to communicate through sounds, performance, and emotions. not only does this offer a more human approach to the sample library, but the freedom that this allows also returns some of the most experimental and expressive samples in the field.
II. FREEDOM AND ACCESSIBILITY WILL COEXIST
II. FREEDOM AND ACCESSIBILITY WILL COEXIST
the main object of any copyleft environment is to balance freedom of ideas with management of accessibility. ideas can and should exist in a freely dispersed environment, like a local library might embody when within its most charitable disposition. in the face of a global capitalist hegemony, we remain optimistic in the viability and security of our open access content. the more accessible the content is, the more tools are available in the people’s hands for expression, creation, and recombination.
although the sounds we record are experimental and boundary-pushing, the utilization of them for the user is simple and accessible. in our library one will find multiple levels, or "buckets", of samples, which are our different approaches to sample splicing. from the full unedited recording, all the way down to single notes, attacks, and moments, one will find a sample that is applicable to their medium.
these sounds will be free and will remain free, for all to use. we aim to end the need for paid sample packs and the commercialization of sounds. by remaining a non-profit funded by subscribers (which can influence the direction of our recordings) and institutional grants (with no influence on our recordings), we can continue to flood the scene with high-quality, useable sounds, giving away as much as possible.
III. OUR LIBRARY WILL BE FOR EVERYONE
III. OUR LIBRARY WILL BE FOR EVERYONE
even within our first round of recordings, we have worked with a diverse community of musicians and performers. it is important to us to bring together a community that represents a variety of identities, styles of performance, and approaches to art. although experimental samples are the core of our library, this does not supersede the desire for the people we record to be true to their own selves. from early music to cybernetic music, we offer a diverse collection of art, philosophy, and performance. with the use of our samples, these approaches can be combined and reassembled to find new connections and links between thoughts and ideas that may at first seem to be in combat with each other. at our core is an attempt to bring together people and their work to find new modes of being and becoming.
for instance, compare the dex recording of midori ataka, an organist who performed pre-existing works of early music to modern styles, to the dex recording of sam pluta, peabody faculty and technical director of the wet ink ensemble, who interfered with crt television frequencies to create beautifully harsh drones and abrasive visuals. how might one combine samples of these two recordings, and how might the simultaneous interfacing create new modes for artistic exploration?
IV. OUR PROJECT WILL BE FOREVER BLOOMING
IV. OUR PROJECT WILL BE FOREVER BLOOMING
on a season-to-season basis, we are constantly looking for new ways to approach the art of sampling. longer improvised sets are the basis of our practice, but this is not the only way we approach sampling. take for instance our call for minute-long field recordings. in the future, we'll continue to question our approach to sampling as well as calls for commissions. look out in the future for calls regarding the interpretation of our sample library, perhaps to commission multimedia installations with our audiovisual samples.
we look forward to releasing new recordings for our next season one drop. in the next drop, be prepared for a stacked roster of new recordings: you’ll see more prepared instruments, qiujiang levi lu on voice with everyday object manipulation, bassoon + pedals, finishing off with sky macklay performing on oboe and lyn goeringer performing with cinder blocks.
thanks for being a part of this project! we can’t we to see how you use these files.
all very best,
cameron, sebastian, and tyler