Tim Exile is at TEDGlobal this week, collecting noise. You see, he’s a UK-based electronic music producer and is putting together a few tracks based on sounds in and around the conference.
On Tuesday, he went outside the theater to record the protesters rallying against George Papandreou’s politics. Then, mixing their chants with the words from Papandreou’s talk and the sounds from Tariq Harb’s classical guitar performance, he improvised this mesmerizing track that manages to call attention to the tense politics involved without losing the beat’s terpsichorean core. Give it a listen, above.
Exile built the instrument he plays himself, in case you were wondering. When we asked him about it, he explained casually: “The instrument was my teenage dream. I was a violinist as a child and an electronic music producer as a teenager. But I wanted to play live and be free to improvise with electronic music like I could on my violin, so I taught myself to program and make my own instruments.”
Exile has had many a favorite sonic moment so far from TEDGlobal.
“I was very moved by Bernie Krause’s recording of the bereaved beaver,” he says. “And I also loved the sound of the quadcopters cooperating to throw a ball with a net.”
Stay tuned to the TED Blog for a recap of Exile’s talk when he performs during Session 11: Tech Impact, on Friday. We’ll also be bringing you more of his sonic offerings from the conference.