YOU SHOULD LEAVE (4.17s)
by Malcolm Goldie
London, 2011


Alarms used
Ei3105TYC - 10 Year Sealed Battery Optical Smoke Alarm


The track in a sentence...
Sitting down and listening to an alarm, rather than getting up and running away from it.


How he did it
Malcolm began by recording alarms sounds from a number of devices.... alarms clocks, carbon monoxide detectors, car alarms etc. He experimented with transforming them into a piece of music. But in the end, he decided to use a single sample of a smoke alarm to make the whole composition. He also felt it seemed appropriate that it be performed in front of a live audience.

For his track, a smoke alarm was layered into a sampler. The sound was then fed through various effect devices while being played and manipulated live.


Final words
"The smoke alarm ran out of batteries four weeks after completing the composition. It was supposed to last for ten years but had only been installed and running for three. As it was a sealed unit it had to be thrown in the bin," Malcolm.

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Malcolm Goldie makes music and sound.