Measuring Device with Organs by Alexander Provan

Download via Bandcamp ($10) Alexander Provan Measuring Device with Organs Published by Triple Canopy, April 2018 Vinyl record, 40 min. Edition of 250 LPs with digital download Measuring Device with Organs ranges from essay to soundscape, bildungsroman to musical composition. The work begins with a typical “expert listener”—a middle-aged, white audiophile with a passion for classic rock—undergoing a test meant to determine what sound should sound like. Measuring Device with Organs hinges on the recordings used in such tests, conducted by stereo manufacturers and agencies like the International Electrotechnical Commission, reliant on the ability of humans to act like listening machines. As the test proceeds, the expert struggles to train his ears on the frequency response of the audio files, to vanquish the memories evoked by Spanish guitar riffs and snippets of ABBA. Through a narration of the listening test and portrayal of the expert listener (whose “auditory virtuosity” is rooted