artists :: Jeph Jerman : excerpts from the sound diary

nov. 25, 99

  in between the refrigerator's burr and the roar of the heater, i can hear the neighbor's brood of barking dogs. they all bark at different pitches and at different times, so that their barking is a group of constantly changing short melodies. it seems comical to me at times, like a cartoon version of dogs.
  the trouble with most music is that while it's playing (or being played) it's very hard to hear anything else.
  around 8pm the refridgerator, after what has seemed an interminably long time, finally shuts off, and i am left with that peculiar, faint ringing sound that most people refer to as silence. a little earlier, as i read, the dogs barked. coming from 3 directions, left, right, behind...are they in fact listening to each other ? conversing ? how could they not be, so wonderfully timed are their barks. their rhythms squeeze together and then spread out, and finally, cease. all talked out ? only so much you can say i guess...

nov. 26, 99

  the kettle and an airplane sing together, water boiling in metal with a rising drone. the boiling doesn't so much rise in pitch as in loudness and mass. now another plane, steady at first, then descending in pitch, but not smoothly...in increments, as though played on a keyboard.
  the water boils. gurgles as i pour it into the french press. click of wooden spoon handle on glass as i stir...wait...pour and stir again. water rises up the inside of the coffee maker, it's sound rises in pitch. the refridgerator burrs, obliterating everything else.

nov. 30, 99

  last night, smoking on the front slab. i heard coyotes. or a coyote, or at least i think it was a coyote, so much more high-pitched and smooth and clear and, well, beautiful was it's wail when compared to the local pack of run of the mill mongrels....
  (so...are they joining in with their wild cousins, these local dogs who answer every coyote call ? singing out of longing for the little wildness that may still inhabit their conscioussness ? or conversing freely, exchanging information on their different lifeways ?
  "so how is it ?"
  "not bad. food regularly...humans aren't bad companions, if a little overly worried..."
  "what about sex ?"
  "there isn't much."
or are they exchanging info about the state of things...
  "won't be long now...the human world will collapse and you house dogs will be free like us coyotes."
  Hmmm...best perhaps not to think or wonder. best to just listen.