Sounds Along the Periphery

Michael Trommer’s Outskirts (Impulsive Habitat) listens to the edges of the city, the depths of its boundaries. Based out of Toronto, Trommer is a sound artist who has also released work on some of the best netlabels around: con-v, test tube, Stasisfield, Audio Gourmet and others. Working with a variety of microphones (contact, hydrophone and induction) in Outskirts, Trommer melds the natural and the man-made worlds to create a soundscape the pops up alive even though so many of its sources are mechanical. One of the interesting aspects of Outskirtsm  is the use of  some infrasonic sound — that is sound below 20 Hz which is the low end of human hearing. The artists suggests in the liner notes that listener wear headphones which, as I experienced, allows a certain amount of pressure to build up on the eardrums to simulate the hearing of infrasonic sound. I know I shouldn’t be surprised that the folks at Impulsive Habitat have put out such another good release, but, damn, the quality of each release is astounding and Trommer’s Outskirts is no exception.