Boris Blank of Yello has spent decades recording sounds that were never designed to become musical instruments.
His enormous personal sample archive has included voices, percussion, broken instruments and ordinary environmental noises. One particularly good example is almost ridiculous: Blank recalled throwing a snowball against his studio wall, recording the impact and eventually transforming it into a bass drum.
He has described sampling as central to Yello’s process from the beginning, first through tape loops and later with digital systems such as the Fairlight CMI.
I love the snowball because it demonstrates the essential magic of sampling better than an expensive studio explanation ever could.
The source does not need to resemble its eventual function.
A kick drum does not need to begin as a drum.
It needs an attack, a body and some useful energy that can be transformed.
Once sound is recorded, its original cause becomes optional.
Pitch it down.
Shorten it.
Filter it.
Layer it.
The visual image of a snowball hitting a wall disappears and a rhythmic object takes its place.
That is one of the profound changes recording technology introduced into music.
Before recording, an instrument was usually defined by the object producing the sound.
Sampling separates sound from object.
After that, almost anything can join the drum kit.
