WHO ARE YOU?
My name is Sam and my bio normally reads something like this:
Since earning his sound engineering diploma from SAE Sydney in 2005 Sam Waks has explored vast swathes of the audio industry from promoter to tour manager, engineer to composer. He moved his studio and main base to the french countryside in 2009 establishing a residential recording studio in the ruins of a 19th century factory farm known as La Briche. He has managed the site ever since, overseeing its gradual transformation from a forgotten industrial ruin into the creative hub it is today. As well as being a professionally trained drummer and percussionist Sam has composed and performed electronic music under a variety of pseudonyms for over a decade.
My main musical alter ego is called Sound Strider and his bio reads more like this:
From the enigmatic depths of the electro shamanic underground, where frequencies entangle with clandestine energies, emerges the enigmatic figure known as Sound Strider. A sonic sorcerer, weaving intricate tapestries of ethereal beats and glitched-out melodies.
With an unyielding obsession for pushing sonic boundaries, Sound Strider ventures into uncharted territories, unveiling a kaleidoscope of otherworldly sonics. Acoustic and digital sounds intertwine with pulsating rhythms, transporting listeners to a realm where reality blurs and imagination reigns supreme.
Prepare to be ensnared in a sonic web, where mystery and innovation converge. Embrace the unknown and let the enigma of Sound Strider unfold. Dare to delve into the abyss of sound.
From these paragraphs you might surmise that my life sits on the intersection between music, technology, counterculture and magic, also that I have a penchant for flowery esoteric language. You would be more or less correct.
WHAT IS A MECHANICAL ANIMIST?
As well as being the name of the debut Sound Strider album and this substack. I consider the term to be a fair summation of where and how I see myself existing in the world. For the better part of a decade I have considered myself an animist, which is to say I see agency, subjectivity and consciousness everywhere, not just in humans but in animals, plants, rocks and oceans. Also cars, computers, cables and amplifiers. I see my work as a bridge between these worlds, an attempt to weave threads between the children of human artifice and the ‘natural’ world which birthed us both.
WHAT IS THIS SUBSTACK ABOUT?
After reading this Charles Eisenstein essay I felt a sudden compulsion to check out the ‘ethical chat gpt’. What ensued was a totally organic conversation which I had no intention whatsoever of starting a substack with. Long story short: I did. In the spirit of mechanical animism I decided that this would be a great way to share my thoughts and words. So this is more or less what to expect when you come here. Perhaps things will change down the line, but the current intention is for this to be a series of socratic dialogues between myself and the machine.
