Sonic Antarctica
January 8th, 2008 andrea
Last night was the Sonic Antarctica concert at the McMurdo Station Coffeehouse. We presented twenty sound recordings and compositions by 11 people, over 90 minutes of sound works total. The turnout was amazing, standing room only. By some estimates over 100 people came out to enjoy snacks, sangria and sound.
A vast majority of the works were created this season, most within the past two weeks (two compositions were finished within hours of the show!).
Some of the highlights were: the walkabout McMurdo station recorded and narrated by Anne Dal Vera, Phil Austin explaining the LDB balloon launch as it was happening, wind harmonics of the SSC stairwell recorded by Patricia Jackson, an interior binaural recording by Julie Katch that was so subtle and beautiful that it got the whole crowed quiet and focused, Tia’s recordings of late night Macops and whistling wind, an industrial noise mix of town machines by James Travis, Jason Seehafer’s Radarsat boom mic recording, Doug Quin’s Elephant Seals loudly complaining about being hauled out (it reminded some listeners of residents grumbling during a recent early morning fire alarm in the dorm!), Jean Pennycook’s Adelie calls, Douglas MacAyeal’s evocative B15A seismic sound and Bob Smalley’s ambient sonification of an Antarctic earthquake (20-minutes matching the real time of the quake). I was surprised to hear audience members reacting strongly to my recordings taken aboard the C-130, A-Star helicopter and on Taylor glacier, saying they actually felt their bodies moving while listening.
Although this wasn’t part of my original plan, Sonic Antarctica turned out so well, if I can edit everything down to 70-75 minutes and find a producer/distributor, I’ll do a commercial CD release of the project this year.
Posted in news, projects | 1 Comment »
