sound and art: peggy baker, henry moore, brian jungen, and me

monday morning and i find myself at the AGO, surrounded by new works by brian jungen and gigantic plaster casts of henry moore works, doing a soundcheck for the peggy baker dance projects 2011 season.  in the moore gallery baker and dancer larry hahn will perform armour, a duet choreographed by new york’s doug varone and premiered in 2010.

my music is playing back in 4 channels, and the speakers are spread out evenly over the giant gallery.  baker and hahn are at one end, and as i watch them i can feel at my back the sound cascading around the space behind me, reflected by the huge and heavy moores and the smaller but equally powerful jungens.  the new jungen works are a 2011 counterpart to the moore pieces, raw and visceral in the same way as the moores, but different—of the land, more canadian, hides stretched over discarded car parts.  as with all of jungen’s work, simple and powerful in a way that really makes us see reality.  not in a different way, but in the way that it really is.

i am so blessed to be here.

catch the show in toronto—my music accompanies the above mentioned armour and the dance installation in walker court, move (which i am listening to as i write this post, a new 72 min score for 16 dancers).  details here: http://www.ago.net/interior-with-moving-figures

Goodbye, Are You OK / Peggy Baker @ the AGO

aaaaaaaaaaand……i’m not done.

i am honoured to be providing music for 2 works in peggy baker dance projects’ 2011 season at the art gallery of ontario: a new one hour score for move, with 16 dancers (or thereabouts), and a remount of the duo Armour, (choreographed by doug varone), which premiered in the 2010 show confluence, which was, if you recall, a full evening show of works that i had the honour to score (in 6 channels!) as well.

it promises to be a special event.  to quote from her site: Peggy Baker Dance Projects invites to you a special performance of “interior with moving figures” at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Four works from the company’s repertoire will be simultaneously and continuously performed in four different galleries throughout the AGO for 70 minutes, allowing patrons to wander between the galleries to discover the next dance.

Showtimes are irregular, so be sure to double check the links above:
Wednesday May 11, 7:00pm
Saturday May 14, 2:00pm
Sunday May 15, 2:00pm
Wednesday May 18, 7:00pm

Wednesday night shows are free admission, and the other shows are free with ticketed admission.

are you ok, with michael healey, peggy baker, and daniel brooks has closed, and it was a great ride.  the audience reaction was palpable, every night, and national post critic robert cushman called it a “perfect jewel”.  i am honoured to have shared the stage with such great artists.

stay tuned, as always, for more…

Are you OK.

a short trailer for “are you ok“, an upcoming show running march 4-11 @ factory studio theatre.  featuring the inimitable peggy baker, the stupendous michael healey, the illustrious daniel brooks, and myself.

like a genius, i’ve decided that the soundscape will be enhanced by my playing vibraphone, among other things.  not the smartest decision i’ve made but hopefully it will result in something good.

hope to see you there.

harmonium live AV set online

finally, there is a record of harmonium, the live AV set i created as a partner piece to the single channel video.
the live set is here:

and the original single channel version is here:

thanks to alejandro freeland for shooting this rough document of the harmonium live av project, at the gladstone hotel in toronto. thanks also to rozina kazi of LAL who invited me to perform, and of course robert lippok for being the Voice.

so much! so many!

too busy–here are the links!

SOLO SHOW: THE KNOWN WORLD (november 4, 7pm.  link has an essay by darren copeland and new sound works on the page as well).

HARMONIUM: LIVE CINEMA PERFORMANCE (november 5 @ the gladstone, part of the latin-afro-south asian festival)

THE BODHI TREE: NEW LIVE CINEMA WORK (november 12 in hamilton, november 13 in toronto @ wychwood barns)

MAHARAJA: THE SPLENDOR OF INDIA’S ROYAL COURTS (opens november 20 @ the art gallery of ontario–i’m doing the sound design for this show in association with the AGO)

phew.

new works

in the theatre today with theatre direct,working on a new show for january of 2011—a wonderful piece of physical theatre with a great history in canada, called head a tete.  it is a tremendous gift to have some time in the theatre with the cast to help guide the sound design.

off to germany soon to (among other things) have a double espresso with my knuckleduster compatriot robert lippok.  work on our new CD is nearing completion!  in the meantime, you can read and hear our contribution to the “collaboration” issue @ vague terrain, a really excellent online journal of electronic music.

new creative process with peggy baker begins in october, and i will be sound designing a major new exhibition at the art gallery of ontario about the maharajas of india.  we have an advisory committee in place, and the ago is committed to making sure there is community involvement in the mounting of this exhibition.  check out the blog and leave your comments.

next year has me in theatre mode, with new plays by the above mentioned theatre direct, with michael healy and peggy baker (directed by daniel brooks), and with pleiades theatre.  if you want to find me between january and june in toronto, check a theatre stage.  more details as they become known of course.

until next time.

field @ the sound symposium

back from a great time @ the sound symposium (follow the link to see some great pics from the 10 day festival).  played drums with maryem tollar but the thing i am most excited about is field, a new project by electroacoustic hurdy gurdy player ben grossman on music and myself on visuals and some digital sound.  we had our world premiere @ the festival and it went great.  some photos are here, and i will be posting video soon.

there will be much more activity in the field, so stay tuned.

for those of you in toronto, you can catch me @ dusk dances in withrow park august 3-8 @ 7pm.  i will be performing again with the inimitable peter chin/tribal crackling wind, with dancers kate holden and yves candau.

much more coming.  here are some photos from the field in st john’s, newfoundland:

video capture by greg locke

photo by greg locke

MUTEK and beyond

on the train, on the way home from my MUTEK set.  very enjoyable evening, curated by ORAL‘s eric mattson.  no sleep, but that is a given i suppose, considering it was MUTEK/montreal.

me on the train home to toronto
here i am, trying to finish this blog post.

lots of drumming coming up, and also some up in the air projects.  watch this space, as usual.

more radio / upcoming

it has been a while.

more radio stuffs: a new mix of kailash is featured on the deep wireless CD, distributed annually by new adventures in sound art.  the conference is on now, so if you find yourself in the toronto area, do register.  as usual it is a great lineup of artists and thinkers.

also, a number of shows are coming up with ensemble polaris, june 6 in toronto and june 13 @ sharon temple.  the mutek show i mentioned earlier down the page is on track, and i am thrilled to be playing such a great festival with some other collaborators.  also playing the same program is the awesome herman kolgen.  i’ll be playing with sultans of string at the end of the month of june as well.

waiting on a few other things….as usual….art, music and recording.  stay tuned.