Shand expands the limits of sampling with ‘Transmutations’

The art of sampling to create other kinds of music has been going on since the ‘70s when disc jockeys in New York City were creating their own beats and rhythms. Eventually this approach became what is now known as hip hop, but sampling had made its way to a variety of other genres as well. Ranging from electronica and pop to indie rock and trip hop, it’s had a substantial effect on a variety of styles.

For Providence based flutist, producer, composer and researcher Jessica Shand, she decided to utilize sampling in an entirely different way with her album “Transmutations” that came out on February 21. She elongated samples of her playing the flute, each barely lasting a second, into different sonic explorations.

The album is Shand’s first official release and it has her performing only the flute and doing the composing while co-producing the endeavor with Joseph Branciforte. Branciforte did the engineering, mixing and mastering as well at Greyfade Studio in Mount Vernon, New York.

“‘Transmutations’ was born out of my research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,” she says about the album. “It consists of twelve tracks, each of which emerges entirely from a short sample of flute sound that is transformed by a constrained set of digital signal processing techniques. I did a semi-improvised live show based on the same compositional framework back in August, and I’m currently planning a small tour for the spring, including a performance at the Oh My Ears Festival [in Phoenix] in March. Some of my other recent work has included ‘Motherbird’, a piece for augmented flutes, electronics, and artificial life simulation, and ‘Organology’, an ensemble piece involving biometric sensors.”

The catalyst for the songwriting and recording process began when Shand was selected among nine people for the inaugural fellowship put on by the Steve Jobs Archive, which is the home for all the information about the late co-founder of Apple and a resource for the creators of both the present and the future.

The fellowship supported Shand as she began her endeavor while conducting experiments with both humans and machines to target the variations between their listening abilities and their reactions to the sounds. Each track on the album is titled “Study No. 1”, “Study No. 2” and so on with none of them lasting over four minutes while only a couple going past the three-and-a-half-minute mark.

In a musical sense, “Transmutations” is meant to be listened to as an experience rather than a typical track-by-track release. I can see it being ideal for someone to do some meditating after pressing play, some work while having it being part of the background, or even as something to analyze in a scientific way.

To give Shand’s new album a listen, log onto her Soundcloud page at soundcloud.com/jessicashand, or you can check out her Bandcamp page at jessicashand.bandcamp.com. “Transmutations” could very well be the most intriguing album to come out of Rhode Island this year, and that fact alone is enough of a reason to give it a listen.