Month: December 2021

Who is Rebbeca Lennon?

Rebbeca Lennon is a British artist that works in various fields, those fields being video, text, performance, sound and music. She uses these fields to experiment with non-linear rhythms using her body, including her voice.

For me I found her lecture very interesting from a non vocalist point of view, and how she used her voice and how it created these dense layers using just the voice. It’s very reminicent of early Joan La Barbara work like ‘Twelvesong‘ off the album ‘Voice Is The Original Instrument’. But Rebbeca is very much doing her own thing with it which I found very interesting. Like on her peice ‘THE KNOT COMMONS 2021‘ She opens the peice with this rythmic vocal line. Then overlaying that with the phrase “This is mine, this is your’s’. Then using her voice to create a gasping noise that almost sounds like a drum. Also laying mouth clicks and different harmonies of the phrase “This is mine, this is your’s”

The way she used visuals was very complementary to the composition. The visuals of mosqitous sucking blood to the rythym of her voice was a good use of using music and visuals that are very different but go togther fluently.

This talk made me want to work with vocalists more (which I am doing as of now) and how I could utilies vocals in my work in the future.

References

Lennon, R. (2021). THE KNOT COMMONS 2021. [online] Vimeo. Available at: https://vimeo.com/641797899

www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Joan La Barbara – Twelvesong. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SvVhDMLTbs

rebeccalennon.co.uk. (n.d.). rebeccalennon.co.uk. [online] Available at: https://rebeccalennon.co.uk/

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Brief introduction to musique concrète

Musique Concrète is a style of early electronic music, Pioneered by the likes of Pierre Schaeffer, Edgard Varèse, and Halim El-Dabh. The style of musique concrète is typically very raw, taking these raw sounds and using tape manipulation techniques and audio effects to alter these sounds. An example of musique concrete is Pierre Schaeffer’s ‘Études de bruits‘ which is a collection of compositions. This composition is from 1948 and some of the sounds used in the compositions are saucepans, canal boats, toy tops, percussion, instrument singing, speech, harmonica and piano. This compilation of tracks perfectly shows the how

How Musique Concrète helped the progression of Sound Art.

Artists like John Cage and Pauline Oliveros took the sounds of early musique concrète and pushed them further into the sound art scene in the 1960s and 1970s. By taking techniques like tape manipulation for example, and pushing it even further. A good example of this would be Pauline Oliveros’s piece ‘The Day I Disconnected The Erase Head And Forgot To Reconnect It’. This piece is about Pauline working at the University Of Toronto Electronic Music Studio during 1966, and the guy who ran the tape/synth area of the university would yell at her when she would use the synthesizers and machines because he deemed it as ‘witchcraft’ or some nonsense like that. This also shows that musique concrète grew into expressing more emotions as well as pushing further sonically.

Musique Concrète in Sound Art During The Current Day?

Musique Concrète now is still prominent in current day sound art. One example would be composer Mark Korven’s homemade instrument called the ‘apprehension engine’. Mark Korven is a composer who is most well known for his work on director Robert Eggars films ‘The Witch’ and ‘The Lighthouse’, both of which had Mark create these atonal, and Avant-Garde soundscapes that relate back to the early days of musique concrète. The apprehension engine is a machine that is compiled out of metal rulers, a spring reverb tank, strings, and other pieces of equipment like the Ebow to excite the machine to create these horror movie-esque sounds. This I think is a fascinating way of taking old techniques of music concrète and early electronic music in general and putting a modern spin on it. I would highly recommend both The Witch and The Lighthouse as the sounds created for the movie are definitely up the alley of sound art and musique conrète.

References

www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Mark Korven – Improvisation on the Apprehension Engine – YouTube. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbtuaIJKMI4.

TheBillser (2020). Pauline Oliveros ‎– The Day I Disconnected The Erase Head And Forgot To Reconnect It. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CKVjO4wN5I.

Wikipedia Contributors (2019). Musique concrète. [online] Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musique_concr%C3%A8te.

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Who is Richard Pheonix?

Richard is an artist who works in painting, drawing, writing and creating music. The way I would describe his artwork would be colourful and abstract. Typically mixing these abstract ideas of humans with these colourful and also dark ideas. Below is an example of his artwork.

‘Whale’

2021
207cm x 182cm
Oil, oil bar and studio detritus on canvas and board

Richard is well known for starting up the creative community called Constant Flux. Constant Flux is a community that combines artists with learning difficulties and the D.I.Y. scene that is prominent in the UK.

Constant Flux

Constant flux is an incredible project. For many reasons, but I feel it’s important to note my experiences of working in the field of supporting young adults with learning difficulties.

I worked in care which specialised in helping young adults with special needs become more independent and expressive. I worked in a group in which the young adults had the most tendency to be extremely violent, in this group it is running on a 2-1 basis. 2 staff, 1 young adult. This job could be fun, but incredibly difficult and it could switch at the flick of a switch. So you are constantly looking out for yourself, staff, and more importantly, other young adults. Apart from that 2 days a week I would work with a musician called Stephen Noyce, who is a multi-instrumentalist. He would come into the facility and he and I would bring instruments like an electronic drum kit, guitar, microphone and percussion in for the young adults to play on. Typically to a song they have chosen, which is typically a Disney track or some rock/pop from the ’70s-’90s e.g. Micheal Jackson.

We found this to be a great way for the young adults to express their emotions and themselves through music, it’s very fun. The environment in these classes would be very upbeat and supportive. I learnt a lot from the young adults and they learnt from me, so it’s a win-win situation I guess.

Anyhow, the way I found Richard approached this was excellent, getting people who are sadly marginalised from society to express themselves through art. Whether it’s playing in bands, creating visual art, or anything else. It seems like a very safe space for them to create and not feel suppressed by societal norms that shouldn’t exist in the same place. I like the way the group releases music through various formats e.g. streaming, cassette. Having multiple ways for people to find this work is great and how Richard has set up tours for bands formed in this space and one-off exhibitions is fantastic for them to get themselves out into the world of touring in a safe environment.

Closing Words

I will definitely be applying what I’ve learnt from Richard and his indevours when I go back to working in care over the summer.

References

richardphoenix.com. (n.d.). Richard Phoenix. [online] Available at: https://richardphoenix.com/.

Anon, (n.d.). Constant Flux. [online] Available at: http://constantflux.co.uk/about/.

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