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Years

Years is a sound installation for modified record player that examines the disparity between the experience of time passing and time as an objective quantity. The piece uses a turntable to “play” a vinyl-Lp-sized cross section of a tree. A camera fitted with a microscopic lens replaces the needle on the record player’s tone arm. DuringContinue reading “Years”

Linda Jansma and Carsten Seiffarth, eds. Gordon Monahan: Seeing Sound: Sound Art, Performance and Music, 1978–2011.

If there is one life-changing moment in the career of the Canadian composer, performer, and sound artist Gordon Monahan, it may well have been his encounter—and eventual partnership—with Laura Kikauka. Leafing through the monograph Seeing Sound, which spans over thirty years of his work as an artist, you will see an image of him wearingContinue reading “Linda Jansma and Carsten Seiffarth, eds. Gordon Monahan: Seeing Sound: Sound Art, Performance and Music, 1978–2011.”

Francisco López. Untitled #275.

Composer and sound recordist Francisco López operates in an area where music and sound merge. On earlier albums he processed recordings from nature and buildings to arrive at this curious intermediate zone. Although the sources of the sounds are readily recognizable, the overall effect is undeniably musical because of López’ arrangement and placement of theContinue reading “Francisco López. Untitled #275.”

Six Heads. Cardboard Oracle.

William Davison and his five sous-chefs have been cooking up—yes, this disc is thoroughly cooked—their signature stews for over a decade now. This vinyl release documents their improvisatory web-toed amblings through the mutant sonic kitchen: each member chopping and dicing various ingredients—both delicious and repugnant—while Davison hovers over the frothing pot, deciding the exact proportions.Continue reading “Six Heads. Cardboard Oracle.”

Brandon LaBelle and Cládia Martinho, Editors. Site of Sound: Of Architecture and the Ear, Vol. 2.

Site of Sound Volume 2 follows a decade after the first volume, a period in time that has seen an increase in the activity of artists working with both sound and architecture. As LaBelle points out in the preface, the decade has also seen more discussion about the idea of the public and of artistsContinue reading “Brandon LaBelle and Cládia Martinho, Editors. Site of Sound: Of Architecture and the Ear, Vol. 2.”

Internationales Minimal Music Festival, Third Edition. Kassel, Germany. October 6–9, 2011.

Every five years since 1955, the small German city of Kassel hosts documenta, Europe’s preeminent contemporary visual-arts exhibition. documenta attracts over one million curious viewers to Kassel, including world-renowned artists, cultural critics, academics, and international media. The citizens of Kassel are, as a result, one of the most open and culturally sophisticated audiences on theContinue reading “Internationales Minimal Music Festival, Third Edition. Kassel, Germany. October 6–9, 2011.”