Veils
PROGRAM NOTES
JENNY BARNES
Jenny presents a solo performance that continues her investigation of vocal sounds untethered from linguistic meaning, which was central to her practice up to 2020. She examined and mimicked recordings of mammals, domestic pets and birds to achieve an extensive and diverse vocal capacity. She then studied the rhythmic cadences and pitch modulations of language and applied her findings to improvisatory and pre-composed musical contexts. For the past 7 years, Jenny has been practicing listening for what and who cannot be heard and why? She is exploring the subjectivity of power through her improvisatory practice as she deeply believes playing improvised music equips her with the skills and insight to respond well, with integrity, strength and care in critical situations.
Jenny is currently adapting particular Pauline Oliveros’ Sonic Meditations to tease out and highlight instances where her listening shifts, recognising the physiological responses to choices made in improvising. She is devising compositions that magnify moments in the state of flow when her body responds in similar ways to how she responds to challenging social and political contexts. She elongates these moments to sit with the intensity until it no longer registers as intense.
Majority of One - for four continuous instruments (2016)
Written for Berlin ensemble Arcardes, then adapted for Decibel, this piece looks at working with limited materials. Each instrument has a very limited and restricted range in the piece, but explores it through the timbral variation of pitch bending and extreme, constant, smooth control of microscopic change. Each instrument has a 'pure glissando range' - a small range between fingerings for winds and brass, the range of a string for string instruments, and an almost unlimited range for electronic instruments. The piece also includes a room feedback part, which samples and manipulates the 'resonant frequency' of the room throughout the piece. Decibel recently a recording of this work on the album 'Cat Hope - Decibel' on Swiss label Ezz-thetics.
In this performance the work takes on a more 'performative' aspect, combining bass flute (Cat Hope), double bass (Helen Svoboda) and Iran Sanadzadeh's floors, which provide 2 sine tone parts.
Delay Taints (2018)
This piece was originally conceived for cello, subtone and dancer, and is performed here for double bass and Sanadzadeh's floors, which turn the choreographic notation into sound as well as movement. The piece was written for Decibel cellist Tristen Parr and dancer Laura Boynes on the occasion of their wedding.
Improvisation - Cat Hope (bass flute), Helen Svoboda (double bass/voice), Iran Sanadzadeh (floors).
Reuben Lewis performs music from his debut solo album "The House is Empty". Using a deceptive mix of trumpet, electronics, field recordings and synthesisers to create “a vivid listening experience that gleams with sinister detail ”(The Wire). The House is Empty delivers four meditative commissions, composed over a two year period, that gently guide the listener to develop a curiosity and comfortability with the unknown. Piece by piece, story and symbol are shattered as we are led to create a new narrative, one that is just between us the listener and the sound world. Reuben's performance will draw on two of these movements:
The House Is Empty
Together / Apart