Soundings
Environmental music performance
Sounding: The act of one that sounds. A probe of the environment for scientific observation. A measured depth of
water. The act of one that sounds.Site-specific musical performances responding to the natural environment.
In 2007 Clocked Out initiated the Soundings project with the week-long series of events Sounding Wivenhoe/Sounding the Powerhouse. Composer Erik Griswold and artist Rebecca Ross took the dwindling Wivenhoe Dam (in the midst of a century-worst drought) as the focal point of their investigation of acoustic, visual, and cultural perspectives.
The four events began with an environmental musical performance on the banks of Lake Wivenhoe, where ten musicians projected their sounds across the lake in a long-distance musical conversation. Following this were three performances at Brisbane Powerhouse, framed by Ross' mesmerizing video installation, which used footage from the lake and Brisbane River to create compex visual rhythms.
Sounding Wivenhoe/Sounding the Powerhouse was generously supported by Brisbane City Council and Brisbane Powerhouse. Clocked Out is currently planning more soundings events in Queensland and California for 2008-9.
"Performers echo rhythms and pitch fragments across the space...The music sits well in the space, the performers acting as sound sources within an environment: obviously present but not obtrusive." Ð Greg Hooper, Realtime Magazine
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