There are many projects that propose the human body as either sound source or motivator thereof. Breath, heartbeats, even—in the case of Jacob Kirkegaard’s 2008 Touch Records release Labyrinthitis—the sound from within the ear itself. Composer Andrew Staniland, with assistance from technology he helped develop, takes things just a little bit further. For the past decade or so, working within the Memorial (University) ElectroAcoustic Research Lab, Staniland has been developing JADE, a new digital instrument with several innovative capabilities. It functions as a musical interface for touch, registering ambient elements such as humidity, temperature, and elevation, and, for this recording, as a real-time reader of EEG brainwaves that are translated into musical building blocks. The mindful subjects for The Laws of Nature are members of Newfoundland’s Kittiwake Dance Theatre. The dancers improvised movement while wearing EEG headsets, and the results were translated by Staniland into what are essentially themes that reflected the individual physical techniques but could then serve as music for dance. A full-bodied loop of sorts.
The pieces faithfully represent a sense of dance, from staccato footsteps to the sway of bodies in space. At times, their electronic nature is left very apparent, while other sections are fully and organically translated into piano, strings, and/or voice. Without benefit of album notes it is unlikely that the music’s provenance might be distinguished from a regularly written score, but still, the character and interplay of the work as a whole carry a charge that draws the listener toward wonder . . . and maybe dance as well.
ERIC HILL has written about music and culture for over two decades, primarily for Exclaim! His biweekly podcast, Surgery Radio, has been exploring the soft boundaries of experimental, ambient, and pop music since 2004. He has managed Backstreet Records in Fredericton for most of his adult life.