Air Objects #3 is a new solo composition for the ElectroHorn, an original hybrid instrument which creates both the acoustic tones of a brass instrument, and, through added electronic circuitry, effects and loops which modify the original sound. The live and processed sounds interact and fill the space with a virtual orchestra of tones. The audience hears both the natural sound of the horn instrument, as well as loops and modifications of the sound coming out of the surrounding speakers, in a spatial environment which empowers the subjectivity of the listener. In the live performance aspect, the performer’s physical movements trigger changes in the music, adding a layer of visual interest, drama and even humor, as motion is translated into sound. The work is architectural in that the roaming performer can leverage the contours and depths of space in the venue to create site-specific air objects, or sonic shapes, in different parts of the building structure. The work is social in that the listeners encounter the performer moving around the space; create their own subjective mix of the sound by listening from different vantage points; and encounter the sound in a liminal/transitional space (the lobby), experiencing the sound as a seamless part of their conversations and social interactions in that temporary space. The tone of the music is mellow, constantly shifting, hypnotically suspenseful, ritualistic and actively meditative. It responds in part to Eno’s concept of ambient music – music meant to “reward attention, but not so strict as to demand it‚” and also to La Monte Young’s conception of “eternal music,” creating a sense of participating in a timeless duration.

BIO

John Berendzen has created noise for theatre, dance and arts in Portland and elsewhere for 25 years. He is co-founder and co-artistic director for Liminal, and has collaborated with Linda Austin, Imago, Mary Oslund, Hand2Mouth and many others. His works and collaborations have appeared at festivals such as NW New Works and Seattle and Vancouver Fringe Festivals. John creates and plays electroacoustic instruments, and spent a 2013 residency at Caldera Arts developing the basic technology behind the ElectroHorn. He enjoys the collision of technology with natural instruments and voices, and seeks a total immersion in and heightened awareness of sound and time. He enjoys socially interactive art, spatially-oriented acoustics, limitation of materials and processes, and nested time structures. John sings shapenote music and classical Indian raga. He spent a year as an intern, student, and sound recordist for minimalist granddaddy La Monte Young in New York City. He is currently working on an ElectroGuitar.

Fragments of a narrative arc are slowly revealed, inviting audiences to reflect on the role we play when loved ones experience loss. While searching for clues, they are invited to place themselves in the narrative. Text and song lyrics are sourced from phone calls with Britt’s mother, #shoutyourabortion rhetoric, and surveys sent to women on their experiences of fulfillment. A self-contained, largely geometric set is built and broken down by Britt herself—a nod to self-sufficiency and the load women bear. The dance movement begins tethered to a table center stage, developing into a stationary sprint that finally becomes celebratory among mountains of released confetti.

BIO

Britt Karhoff’s (Choreographer and Performer) work has been presented in Seattle at Velocity Dance Center, On the Boards, Behind the Pink Door, NEPO 5K and at the Joe Goode Annex in San Francisco. She has performed locally, nationally and internationally on stages, in historic buildings and on the sides of skyscrapers with artists and companies including Project Bandaloop, Joe Goode Performance Group, Flyaway Productions, zoe | juniper, KT Niehoff, Shannon Stewart, Coleman Pester, Anna Conner, Alice Gosti, Kim Lusk and Kaitlin McCarthy among many others.