“paths and forms”

excerpts from compositional notes by Roger Reynolds

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PULSE FIELD

presented by the Schools of Art & Design and Music

curated by Craig Dongoski, Robert Thompson and Cathy Byrd

 

 

January 18 – February 28, 2003

 

January 18, 6:00 – 8:00 PM

Opening Reception

Pulse Field

Georgia State University Galleries

 

February 6, 6:00 – 8:00 PM

First Thursday Downtown Arts Walk

Ouie Dire performs at 7:00 PM *

 

February 19, 7:00 PM

Douglas Kahn: Drugs and Sound

Speakers Auditorium, Student Center

 

 

* in residence from February 1 – 21

the French sound art collective Ouie Dire

will produce a sound art postcard of Atlanta.

 

Pulse Field website: cara.gsu.edu/pulsefield

 

 

L’Objet Sonore

curator: Adam Overton

January 18 – February 21

Opening Reception

January 18, 8:00 – 10:00 PM

Eyedrum Art & Music Gallery

Suite 8, 290 MLK, Jr. Drive

Atlanta, GA 30312

www.eyedrum.org

 

Pulse Field at the first exhibition is the series

“Situations Françaises: Atlanta Presents

Contemporary Art from France,” a set of exhibitions designed

by Georgia State University, the Atlanta College of Art

and the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center

to showcase new French art.

 

Situations Françaises is presented with the support of

Etant Donnés: The French-American Fund for Contemporary Art

and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy.

 

Other sponsors include Sweetwater Sound, retromodern.com,

Robert Thompson and Jude LeBlanc.

Pulse Field: SoundScape  V

 

Surrealist Antiphonies

 

 

Disc I – 69:05

 

Natasha Barrett (Norway / United Kingdom)

 

1) The Letters of a Dream                                             14:45   2002

2) Viva La Selva                                                           17:37   1999

 

George Brunner (United States)

 

3) Art in Heaven                                                           6:18     1999

4) Anthem                                                                    7:12     2001

5) Women in Black                                                       21:43   1995-98

 

 

Disc II –  49:55

 

Roger Reynolds (United States)

 

1) Red Act Arias                                                          18:02   1997

2) Versions-Stages                                                       21:50   1991

 

Robert Scott Thompson (United States)

 

3) Eclipse                                                                     10:00   2002

 

 

Disc III –  60:34

 

Riccardo Santoboni (Italy)     

 

1) Rumours                                                                  7:44     2002

 

Andy Birtwistle (United Kingdom)

 

2) Steel II                                                                     9:43     2000

 

Benjamin Broening (United States)

 

3) Via Negativa: The Cloud of Forgetting                      5:03     2002

 

Jan Jacob Hofmann (Germany)

 

4) Condensations                                                          8:46     2002

 

Massimo Carlentini (Italy)

 

5) inverso-cosmico                                                       11:17   2000

6) Retrospettive di dioia                                                16:10   2002

 

 

Disc IV –  68:49

 

Kristoff K. Roll and Xavier Charles (France)

 

1) Le couloir sans papier peint                          5:06     1999

2) Grange nocturne                                                       8:01     1999

3) Casco de hacienda                                                   15:03   1999

 

Richard Lainhart (United States)

 

4) Two Mirrors Face One Another                               40:00   1976

 

 

Disc V –   35:20

 

Natasha Barrett (Norway / United Kingdom)

 

1) Prince Prospero’s Party                                            15:55   2002

 

Paul Lansky (United States)

 

2) Ride                                                                         19:05   2001

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a collection, the five SoundScapes of Pulse Field merely scratch the surface of the vast reservoir of significant sound art being produced today.  However, the works included tend to suggest corollaries to schools or movements in the art world.  The creations of the SoundScape sound-artists are perhaps most akin to the graphic realizations of the surrealists, since the means to extrapolate sounds from “native conditions” tends to forever change their morphologies and their meanings – turning them into something “rich and strange.”

 

For centuries composers have been concerned with antiphony.  Now, with the advent of surround sound, the notions of sound spatialization, dynamic location modulation,  and similar concerns are once again at the forefront of composer’s thinking.  Of course, it is not a question of simply more speakers, but rather of the coordinated outworking of spatial designs which are at the service of musical forms.  In this manner, sound spatialization becomes a new compositional variable – a new parameter for the artist to explore.

 

In the fifth and final SoundScape of Pulse Field, several works are highly significant as they are heard in 5.1 surround sound for the first time (using six distinct speakers for playback).  Roger Reynolds’ Red Act Arias and Versions-Stages, originally composed as octophonic and quadraphonic works respectively, have been translated to this format for inclusion in Pulse Field.  Similarly, Paul Lansky’s octophonic Ride has been specially remixed by the composer for 5.1 presentation during Pulse Field.