Kinderspel, for video and tape (November 1996) is experimental in its attempt to create an appropriate and collaborative musical and visual language. Our underlying ethos in both media was to give our imaginations full rein—to explore the boundaries of our respective domains and return to the origins of our creativity, viewing our artistic expression as child’s play (“kinderspel”) once more!

The tape part was created overall in response to the visual material. This affected the manner in which I went about identifying the appropriate character of sound material to be included. In essence I intended to create a sonic imitation, or likeness, of the visual material. In particular I was fascinated by the highpitched register which the visual artist, Stephen Connolly, had created within his genre, and I set out to transplant this to the sonic dimension. The result is a sonic idiom which stretches at the boundaries of its own conventions.

The opening sound is a sample of a DAT machine as it forward winds/back winds; a sound common within the practices of electroacoustic music, but rarely used as a sample in its own right. Sampling is at a premium in Kinderspel and is used intentionally in a deliberate and rough way.