PEDALphiles (2020)

In basements, garages and sound isolated rehearsal rooms, electronic musicians flick switches, turn dials and knobs to modulate sound through chains of effect pedals. Through experimentation of different settings, adding and subtracting and sequencing effect pedals in different ways, musicians craft new sounds and textures of sonic expression. While the title is a play on words, this film is about the play of sound and circuitry. It examines the role of these assemblages of technology in lives of musicians and makers. Through following effect pedals in the alternative music scene in Leuven, patterns and webs of relation emerge, providing a perspective on improvisation/innovation and what it means to make music. In tracing the ‘liveliness’ of pedals through circulation and performance, this work argues that what we do not see and rarely hear about makes music happen, pushes it’s boundaries and shapes the lives of those around it.