Alignment
The origins of Absolute Value of Noise © 1988-91.
CD reprint edition © 2004.

Alignment is the first body of work produced by Absolute Value of Noise. Based mostly on recordings of ambient outdoor soundscapes, these tracks were processed live using cassette-head feedback. The sounds were pushed just to the limit of feedback but not beyond to create intense distortion. Alignment and Scraping the Foundations use the sounds of collapsing buildings and demolition machinery. Live Radio Alignment uses spinning vinyl and shortwave radio.

You can listen to this album on Bandcamp

Performed live on-air at CiTR FM 101.9 and at the Noise Studio, Vancouver. Special thanks to Brian Charles for the invention of the name ("absolute value of noise") and the source tape (pre distortion) for the first version of Alignment.

The images that go with the tracks are all taken in the optics lab. Most of them are film plates from a laser diffusion setup. One of them is a plate shot made from a piece of holographic film.

Track Art for Alignment (21:55) April 1988. Interference pattern of light diffusion through a fine steel grate.

Track Art for Realignment (6:54) May 1988. Interference pattern "grid square".

Track Art for Scraping the Foundations (5:40) March 1989. Interference lines from a holographic film plate.

Track Art for Live Radio Alignment (18:41) February 1990. Examination of dust on a diffusion grate.

Track Art for Noise Speaker | digital alignment (2:29) July 1991. A star.

absolutevalueofnoise.ca   |   audio available on bandcamp