DJ SOTOFETT releases four mini-albums digitally in August 2020. Firstly an unfinished experimental Wave-Editing project with alias Kristalli Poisid produced in Amsterdam 2006. Later a classic Acid Techno album from 2005 recorded in Bergen, and then (potentially) live concert recordings from Japan and Norway. All releases will be available on
djsotofett.bandcamp.com for about a month before they are distributed on all digital download and streaming platforms.
WAVE-EDITING is not a particularly well known style or genre of music, but similar to Chiptune it is impossible to detach Wave-Editing as a musical style from it's actual production method since it's made with, and only with, software that edits digital audio wave-forms on a computer. Glitch music is a definition of aesthetics (like Minimal Music), while Wave-Editing is a description of the actual work method (very similar to Improvised Jazz).
Musical styles growing out of the lack of equipment is typically forced to expand and challenge its own technical borders and limits, and while almost every producer using a DAW is bound to edit a waveform at some point – a small community in the early 2000's used wave-editing as a way to make music. The evolution is simple; editing on tape is complex, editing with cassettes is really time consuming, on a sampler is simpler, but samplers previously had very limited storage capacity. When the minidisc came there were simple ways of editing and creating track marks and primitive loops that simplified many "tricks", but, editing on a computer is just heavenly in terms of accuracy compared to most other formats.
(Wave) Editing a sound recording, a sample, or fixing a mistake on a mixdown, was taken further by using only parts no longer than milliseconds, copying and pasting them together with other particularly edited waveforms till it became a composition, in the end very similar to making a "disco edit" where a drum break may be repeated and edited while other musical parts are removed. What makes Wave-Editing different is that the excerpts and cut-outs are highlighted instead of making an "invisible" edit in the material, there are deliberate 90 degree hard edits of low frequency waves generating sounds that are difficult and sometimes almost impossible to generate with other equipment. The aesthetic may often be Glitch, but the method makes it Wave-Editing.
The "cut & paste" process is as time consuming as traditional MIDI and computer programming. Personally I never considered it a musical style, it was initially a(nother) way of getting things done, perfect while not having other equipment or a DAW sequencer at hand. That was before meeting other people who did exactly the same – and also realising the music that was made this way had very similar aesthetics. There's no need to hide that it does sound very much like Glitch music, but due to its very time consuming work method and also the lack of a sequencer or a loop function it is in its troublesome way a very free method of working, creating rhythms and arrangements measured by the milliseconds, and not always the same millisecond on each repeated section.
In 2005 I met Andres Lõo from Estonia, and while having made music together for a bit we realised both of us collect recordings of all sorts with a further (particular) editing method in mind. Literally any sound recorded was (and is) valuable as it could (and can) be cut into pieces and reshaped with wave editing – and Sound Forge was one of the most accurate, excessively quick, and easily available tools out there. Sound Forge allowed cross pasting and multi layering – though all would be ending up as one stereo or mono wave file (there was never any multi tracking). The software had the usual simple effects (delay/flanger/reverb/pitch etc.) and standard editing tools (cut/paste//fades/reverse and so on). The beauty of this work method is that you have to make a choice, you can regret, but only as many times as CTRL+Z or CMD+Z would allow you to undo your makings.
Lõo would during this time be in the making of his solo album "Skeletons on Rock" released on CD by Laton (LATON 048) in 2009. The album is strictly dedicated to the production method of Wave-Editing, but he uses live drums (re-edited), a TR-909 and also a Roland Jupiter-8 on a few tracks. All other sound sources are snippets and samples tediously edited and pasted into what sounds like (freely) sequenced tracks with hard cuts and sometimes stuttering compositions. Other music that has been made with this technique is Crystal Bois' original version of "Can You Handle The Acid?" released by Sex Tags Mania (MANIA 09) in 2007 – the track sounds like a repetitive Disco House track, but there are no loops, only simple sounds and snippets pasted and cross-pasted together with Sound Forge, little by little, step by step. Also Uwe Schmidt's (aka Atom™) excellent edit of "In Berlin 1995" by Andres Bucci & Jimi Tenor released on SHELLACK-2 strongly highlights the 90 degree hard edits of the looped rhythm, effectively representing what most others would hide. A maybe more surprising production that was made with this technique is the "DJ Sotofett's Live Jazz Mix" of "Foliage", a track by Gilb'R & DJ Sotofett released on Versatile Records (VER 110) – it is initially a jazz track, but made by copying, editing and cross-pasting all live recorded tracks on top of each other and into a stereo track with Sound Studio 3.5.2. Due to the level of tracks pasted on top of each other the mix and composition had to sit perfectly as there was no way to go back and change anything later. Listen, execute, move forward, done.
In July 2020 while searching through a harddrive I discovered 7 wav-files that (I thought) were lost during a HD crash in 2007. The files, from an unfinished Wave-Editing album made with SoundStudio 3.5.2 got misplaced in the root folder of an old Cubase project from 2006. Here released "as is", 16bit stereo with no mastering (which usually alters Wave-Editing music in a way distinguishing it from it's original hard edged sonics, delicate use of sonic space, and initial intention). File names aren't even changed, they are only converted to AIFF's due to the format was better for carrying the metadata. As a side note there will soon be an album featuring Andres Lõo, Jaakko Eino Kalevi and myself, but this is all recorded live with microphones.
– DJ SOTOFETT
REFERENCES
Andres Lõo "Skeletons on Rock"
andresloo.bandcamp.com/album/skeletons-on-rock-lp
Crystal Bois "Can You Handle The Acid?"
www.discogs.com/Acid-Kings-Crystal-Bois-Can-You-Handle-The-Acid/release/1031270
Andres Bucci & Jimi Tenor "In Berlin 1995 (Uwe Schmidt Edit)"
www.discogs.com/Various-The-Future-Gets-Involved/release/1570066
Gilb'R & DJ Sotofett "Foliage (DJ Sotofett's Live Jazz Mix)"
shop.versatilerecords.com/track/gilbr-dj-sotofett-foliage-live-jazz-mix-2 
