Resource: We Upcycle

Even though I live in Seattle and have facial hair, this post about “upcycling” is not a plug for dumpster diving. Rather, it is to share my excitement about creativity and sustainability. Activate your imagination from what you already have to prevent waste with useful items made from what you would normally discard. Unlike recycling, upcycling encourages innovation along with resourcefulness.

For inspiration, I found a fantastic Viennese upcycling site. They are on day 25 of a 30-day challenge to design beautiful objects 30 days in a row. For everyone who sends them a photo of an upcycle project, weupcycle.com will add a day to their challenge. Today’s project includes branches to hang clothes and display shoes.

 

Walking with ears open on World Listening Day

The first World Listening Day is Sunday, July 18th. There are listening events in cities such as Colorado Springs, Hong Kong, Rijeka, Perth, Cumbria, Chicago, and Seattle. Seattle’s event includes a Greenlake soundwalk hosted by the Seattle Phonographers Union. One of their members is sound artist/audio engineer Doug Haire. Haire worked with me on the recording Walking released in 2001. Here’s an excerpt:

As inspiration for the music, I walked around Greenlake at different hours and listened creating an aural sketchbook similar to Claude Monet’s series of haystacks painted at different times of the day. My favorite time at the lake was around 5AM, when the morning was wrapped in fog, people quietly fished, and ducks slowly awoke. On weekdays from 7AM to 9AM, the power walkers and joggers took over with individual Walkman headphones plugged into their ears. This shifted Greenlake from a place of being to one of doing.

With listening, it is possible to merge both being and doing. Thanks Seattle Phonographers Union for hosting a listening event around Greenlake. The free guided soundwalk happens this Sunday from 10AM to 4PM. Participants will be briefed on acoustic ecology and intentional listening inspired by the World Soundscape Project, World Listening Project, World Forum for Acoustic Ecology, and phonographers around the world.

 

May Day! May Day!

01 May 2010, 1PM to 1AM
May Day! May Day! 12-hour New Music Marathon

Town Hall and Nonsequitur present May Day! May Day! The 12-hour new music celebration includes performances by musicians that include Stuart Dempster, Michael Nicollela, Cristina Valdes, Michael Jinsoo Lim, The Esoterics, Paul Rucker, and the Seattle Chamber Players. Dave Beck, Gavin Borchert, and Zach Carstensen will MC.

From 8:12-8:27PM, a handful of the 64 Kidnapping Water: Bottled Operas will be performed by soprano Emily Greenleaf with Byron Au Yong, Stuart McLeod, and Dean Moore on water percussion. This is the first time excerpts from the work will be performed indoors (!)

Town Hall

1119 8th Ave

Seattle WA 98101

$5 in/out privileges

townhallseattle.org/mayday

 

Unclogging Gutters

As I clear autumn leaves from clogging the sewer drain outside my home, I am reminded of all the music-making that needs to happen in preparation for Three Seasons to premiere at On the Boards in mid-January 2010:

• Finish my musical analysis of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons
• Meet with Stuart McLeod to figure out an amplified percussion set-up that can appear and disappear seamlessly with the dance
• Touch base with Baroque violinist Ingrid Matthews, costume designer Michael Cepress, and choreographer Olivier Wevers

Even though it is much more fun to gather leaves in the rain and hang out with the chickens, I know that once I start transferring my sketches and connecting with collaborators, my figurative clogged gutter will flow with musical creativity.

Tristan Uhl recently wrote about the Whim W’him launch where a Three Seasons musical sketch presented:

For Whim W’Him’s debut production Olivier has chosen to address not only the unpredictability and fragility of our lives but also, the changing of the seasons. The title for the debut is Three Seasons — an apt beginning for a project that thrives on unpredictability.

The piece has been scored Composer Byron Au Yong, who has created a profoundly moving and modern interpretation of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. The musical instruments used almost confront nature with man by melding sounds including but not limited to, a violin, the rhythmic rustling of leaves and — my favorite — a high heel. The overall effect makes it hard to distinguish the traditional instruments from the more novel ones.

SubterfugeSeattle.com has the full article plus photos. Thanks for the nice write-up. High heels are my new favorite instrument too.

 

Music with light bulbs and leaves

Last Saturday, Whim W’him held a benefit for the launch of Olivier Wever’s new company. The debut work, to be premiered at On the Boards in January 2010, will be the Three Seasons prompted by Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

percussion set-up photo by Stuart McLeod

Press play for an audio sample (duration 1:11)
(No audio player? Try AloneTone Mp3)

I’ve been sketching ideas drawn from Vivaldi’s use of musical gestures. His phrases for violin and strings represent birds, thunder, and other sounds heard in nature. This prompts me to think about the nature of “nature.”

Each of Olivier’s nine dancers have an object they cannot live without. These include high heels, pillows, and light bulbs. I wonder if these factory-produced items affect a listener’s notions of what is natural.

• How do man-made and nature sounds inhabit the world?
• In the Digital Age, is the notion of nature broadened?
• What is the sound of light bulbs with leaves?

The audio sketch above is from a live performance held at Steve Jensen’s studio loft.

The music was created in collaboration with Sebastian Lange on amplified/processed violin, and percussionists Stuart McLeod and James Whetzel on amplified leaves, water bowl, pillows, high heels, water phone, and light bulbs. Jeff Walker recorded the performance and yours truly edited the sample above.