FULL-TEXT AVAILABLE IN PRINT EDITION ONLY The sound of a clarinet passage emerges from a quiet section and is punctuated by a series of minute electronic tones. Accompanying the clarinet is a recording of the wind, but the sound is more than just that of a rush of wind; it is the sound of the wind buffeting the microphone being used to record the wind. Slowly the wind sound is joined by a quiet trombone-and-oboe duo and the wind morphs into the sound of a needling rain that in turn morphs into the sound of a flag flapping in the breeze, The recorded flapping has an added texture, like a Geiger counter clicking. Finally, the faint sound of bird call can be heard in the background, and the recorded sound fades away, allowing room for a short composition for reeds and horns, played by a small group of improvising musicians.
This is the middle section of Change Ringing (2005), written by Texas-born and Chicago-based composer Olivia Block. The piece is the final part of a trilogy that also comprises Pure Gaze and Mobius Fuse. Notable for its vividly tactile and richly imagistic thirty-minute compositions, the trilogy reveals Block’s ability to successfully weave together music composition, field recordings, electronic processing, and the sonic artifacts of each of those elements. It serves as a strong introduction to Block’s work and represents her first compositions since moving on from the indie-rock-oriented Austin music scene.
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Image by: Yuko Zama
Chris Kennedy is an independent filmmaker, film programmer and writer based out of Toronto. He has programmed for the Images Festival, the Pleasure Dome screening collective, the Free Screen at TIFF Bell Lightbox and he co-founded the Early Monthly Segments film salon. His short experimental films have screened at over one hundred film festivals. He holds an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. More information on his work is available at www.theworldviewed.com