Polymorphous Pan is an entity dwelling at its own Dungeon and living of energy provided by mutagenic performance art and experimental music. These creations have been occurring in the basement of a squatted bookshop in North London the past seven years, as part of events Chronic Illness of Mysterious Origin (in 2017 renamed to Chronic Illness) curated by Neo Fung, who writes:
Inspired by rotten fetishism, various acts of body performance that engage with fungi on a visual and material level have been featured at Chronic Illness to explore the possibility of enacting alternative sexualities and non-normative lifestyles as key ecological processes within the present-day, decomposing civilisation (Bockowski P., Fungal Fetishism, 2022).
The sound piece explores a sonic fantasy of an abandoned mouldy industrial basement which sometimes comes alive whilst hosting gatherings of the strange and uncommon expressions of arts, individualities and creates a backdrop for emerging varieties of new identities and non-conforming ideas about life. These are in juxtaposition with what is commonly occurring above ground.
Polymorphous Pan is a collection of field recordings gathered in the actual basement during late October and November 2022 using various types of microphones like dynamic Shure SM58, pair of small diaphragm condenser Oktava MK-012-01 (often positioned at opposite sides of the space or the object to capture the stereo), condenser Tonor TC20, ZOOM XYH-6, Soma Ether and 13 piezo contact microphones. I have recorded the space itself during two overnight recording sessions using every type of microphone and only objects present in the basement or close to its entrance. The only other acoustic object used during recording which hasn’t originated in the basement was a pair of mallet drumsticks. For recording of the metal cage I used twelve contact microphones via aggregate of audio interfaces Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 and M-Audio M-Track Eight.
I have chosen particular samples based on various characteristics of the sound like texture, frequency range and amount of the natural echo of the basement. After I listened to the final selection of samples I edited and composed them in Ableton Live 10. To process the sound I have often used a resonator called Corpus and four different effects on Send/Return channels (short reverb, long reverb, ping pong delay and echo).
During the recording I have encountered several problems which led me to rethink the process and influenced my further creative choices. For example after the first overnight recording I realised that gains on ZOOM H6 recorder were set too high therefore a lot of hissing appeared. The second overnight recording had levels set much better but in terms of interesting events recorded not much happened in comparison to the first night. I have chosen the tapping water leak from the first rainy night, applied low pass filter and processed it with Corpus. This created the lead bass drone present during most of the piece.
My favourite part of the process was the application of Alvin Lucier’s technique for the room resonance extraction articulated by speech. I recorded Neo Fung reading the article about Polymorphous Pan in the Dungeon and re-recorded the speech thirty one times.
List of equipment used for recording and production:
Microphones: Shure SM58, pair of condensers Oktava MK 012, condenser Toner TC20, 13 piezo contact mics, Soma Ether
Sound interfaces and recorders: Zoom H6, Focusrite Scarlet 18i8, M-Audio Eight Track
Analog compressor Focusrite Compounder for drum group
DAW: Ableton Live 10
Bockowski, P. (2022), ‘Fungal Fetishism, rotten performance at the Dungeons of Polymorphous Pan’, CLOT Magazine, 8(September). Available at: https://www.clotmag.com/ (Accessed: 20 November 2022)
