Part film score, part ambient record, part sound collage, Tapeworm brings together Eric Potter’s 35+ years as a field recordist and musician.
With one foot in the Los Angeles experimental music scene and the other in Hollywood, Eric Potter crafts analog soundscapes for major motion pictures, performs and records with a range of musical artists, and contributes to professional sound effects libraries.Created in collaboration with the sound design team at Pro Sound Effects, the compositions on Tapeworm incorporate Potter's unconventional guitar techniques, layered effects, feedback, tape loops, and field recordings tracked directly to two-track tape to evoke otherworldly atmospheres, clouds of swirling ambience, wastelands of analog noise, and sonic wormholes between magnetic particles.
Side A focuses on musical improvisations centering around Potter's guitar work. Side B is a series of sound pieces composed using select recordings from his extensive recording archive. Only Potter's own sounds were used, with no external synths, added instruments, or delay/reverb effects. Audio was printed to physical tape, re-amped and "worldized" in real rooms, with tape loops built on three 1960s Sony mono two-track machines. Pro Sound Effects sound artists in São Paulo, Argentina, Japan, LA, and New York worked from Potter's raw recordings.
Los Angeles-based field recordist and musician Eric Potter has been recording sound effects since 1990 and has worked on such films as Edward Scissorhands, Independence Day, The Dark Knight, Ford v Ferrari, and Dune. He has captured the sounds of big rig trucks and tiny flowers. He has been honored with coveted industry awards… and is currently restoring a vintage jukebox in his living room.
When not designing or recording sound effects, Potter conjures equally unique sounds with his guitar, performing with experimental music groups in LA such as Cat Museum or recording with artists like Frank Black of The Pixies, Billy Talbot, and Malcolm Mooney of Can.
Tapeworm is available now in a limited physical run of 250 cassettes via Translation Loss Records.
Available now from Pro Sound Effects and Translation Loss Records:
