Uploaded January 2018 | Updated September 2026, 5 hours ago
Zeitgeber perform 'Persistent Oscillations' in a stormwater drain with epic natural reverb.
Grab their new album at: zeitgeber-aus.bandcamp.com/album/heteronomy
DOP - Steven Dale
Edited by Evan
facebook.com/zeitgeberband
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About the clip:
Somewhere below the streets of the inner west of Sydney are a series of stormwater drains with amazing natural reverb. We recently explored these underground echo chambers to record a live, extended, acoustic version of 'Persistent Oscillations' from the debut Zeitgeber album, ‘Heteronomy’.
Because this space was so reverberate we really had to alter the way we played in dynamics and intensity. We also played more sparsely in certain sections to allow the reverb to breathe. In a way, the space actually became like another instrument in the band that we had to musically interact with. If we didn't listen to it and respond appropriately, the reverb would sometimes overpower what we were doing. It took us several takes to adjust the way we played to account for this.
I think consideration of how one might change their performance to account for the space is somewhat missing in a lot of contemporary music settings. We tend to just rock up, plug into amplifiers, turn up the knobs, hope the soundie knows what they are doing and then hope for the best. Then, often everything is turned up much louder than it needs to be to maintain people's attention. Unfortunately this often just tires our poor old eardrums and gives the audience no leeway in perceiving subtle dynamic changes in the performance.
Instead, I like the idea of thinking of the performance space as a member of your band. If you start a two-way conversation with it- playing and listening, and responding accordingly, then you can get some really interesting results. This is something that I'm still learning, and these Zeitgeber acoustic sessions will hopefully allow us to explore that idea further in the future.
Zeitgeber perform 'Persistent Oscillations' in a stormwater drain with epic natural reverb.
Grab their new album at: zeitgeber-aus.bandcamp.com/album/heteronomy
DOP - Steven Dale
Edited by Evan
facebook.com/zeitgeberband
----
About the clip:
Somewhere below the streets of the inner west of Sydney are a series of stormwater drains with amazing natural reverb. We recently explored these underground echo chambers to record a live, extended, acoustic version of 'Persistent Oscillations' from the debut Zeitgeber album, ‘Heteronomy’.
Because this space was so reverberate we really had to alter the way we played in dynamics and intensity. We also played more sparsely in certain sections to allow the reverb to breathe. In a way, the space actually became like another instrument in the band that we had to musically interact with. If we didn't listen to it and respond appropriately, the reverb would sometimes overpower what we were doing. It took us several takes to adjust the way we played to account for this.
I think consideration of how one might change their performance to account for the space is somewhat missing in a lot of contemporary music settings. We tend to just rock up, plug into amplifiers, turn up the knobs, hope the soundie knows what they are doing and then hope for the best. Then, often everything is turned up much louder than it needs to be to maintain people's attention. Unfortunately this often just tires our poor old eardrums and gives the audience no leeway in perceiving subtle dynamic changes in the performance.
Instead, I like the idea of thinking of the performance space as a member of your band. If you start a two-way conversation with it- playing and listening, and responding accordingly, then you can get some really interesting results. This is something that I'm still learning, and these Zeitgeber acoustic sessions will hopefully allow us to explore that idea further in the future.
