Critical Noise

CRITICAL NOISE examines the impact sound has on our lives.

About my life, in particular:

My childhood was spent in the Caribbean, South America, the mid east, Europe and the American Southeast. As a toddler my Peruvian nanny called me 'Xaui' –pronounced 'chowie', and which describes a songbird –a prophetic sign if ever there was one.

I grew up a violinist, violist, dancer, composer and amateur ethnomusicologist; and became an early (and obsessional) adherent of microcomputer-enabled composition and sampling technologies. I spent fifteen years as a commercial music and sound design producer, producing national and international projects out of both New York and LA. Along the way, I fulfilled Senior Producer, Executive Producer and Creative Directorial roles at three acclaimed music houses: One being the leading sonic branding house in the country; another, the leading sound design firm; and the last, a pioneering interactive enterprise called Blister Media, which I co-founded and rode the dot com bubble like a methamphetamine cowboy.

My contributions can be heard on hundreds of Television and Radio commercials, and in theme parks, kiosks, installations, and a variety of electronic devices, web sites and electronic games.

And I've also been known to step up to the occasional open mic.

Much of my life has been defined by sound, –or that's the way I've simply chosen to define it. Which brings us to the origin of this blog. Without actually keeping a formal dairy, I find myself writing often about my sonic experiences: Mystical, Commercial, Natural, Primal, Tonal, Physical –and Musical.

And I can't help but want to consider and comment on the similarly sonic experiences of others, as relayed to me –either through something I read, or via direct conversation.

I've thus decided to create a repository –this blog: CRITICAL NOISE– where I can 'park' these thoughts –nearly all disparate from one another save for having to do with all things audio. I guess that means I will eventually get around to writing about everything in the known universe, if I live long enough to do so. And when I am done, I suppose you can say that I will have a produced a document of my life as it was lived through sound.

If nothing else, I hope that by putting these thoughts to these virtual pages, I might also banish a host of interloping mumbles and murmurs currently occupying my mind. And by so doing, free enough space that therein new melodies form where once words lay cluttered, and stir my senses again with the sublime power of music.