8 channels
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talking rain
Rain sounds from the westcoast of British Columbia, Canada are the basic compositional materials for Talking Rain. Through them I speak to you about this place. The raincoast. A lush and green place. Made that way by rain. Nourished by rain, life-giving rain. In Talking Rain the ear travels into the sonic formations of rain, into the insides of that place of nourishment as well as outside to the watery, liquid language of animals, forests and human habitations, all of which are nourished by the rain.
Talking Rain was commissioned by CBC Radio for Westcoast Performance. It was realized in my own studio, Inside the Soundscape, and was premiered on April 20, 1997. Most rain recordings for this piece were made by myself in and around Vancouver. Thanks to Norbert Ruebsaat for providing his recordings of ravens, eagles and frogs from Haida Gwaii and also for finding the right title for the piece, magically. Thanks to Bruce Davis and Peter Huse for their high-quality recordings made in the early seventies for the World Soundscape Project's environmental tape collection at Simon Fraser University; to Robert MacNevin for his equally high-quality recordings made 20 years later (1991 to 95) for the same collection; to David Grierson for his light footsteps and receptive ears during the recording of our rainy forest soundwalk in Lighthouse Park near Vancouver. Special thanks go to Jon Siddall, producer of Westcoast Performance for giving me this opportunity and for challenging me to create a radio piece with sounds that must be the most difficult sounds to broadcast!
Talking Rain is dedicated to my long-time partner and friend Peter Grant. Before he passed away in 2014, we used to love taking rain walks together.
See https://hildegardwesterkamp.ca/sound/comp/2/talking/
Talking Rain was commissioned by CBC Radio for Westcoast Performance. It was realized in my own studio, Inside the Soundscape, and was premiered on April 20, 1997. Most rain recordings for this piece were made by myself in and around Vancouver. Thanks to Norbert Ruebsaat for providing his recordings of ravens, eagles and frogs from Haida Gwaii and also for finding the right title for the piece, magically. Thanks to Bruce Davis and Peter Huse for their high-quality recordings made in the early seventies for the World Soundscape Project's environmental tape collection at Simon Fraser University; to Robert MacNevin for his equally high-quality recordings made 20 years later (1991 to 95) for the same collection; to David Grierson for his light footsteps and receptive ears during the recording of our rainy forest soundwalk in Lighthouse Park near Vancouver. Special thanks go to Jon Siddall, producer of Westcoast Performance for giving me this opportunity and for challenging me to create a radio piece with sounds that must be the most difficult sounds to broadcast!
Talking Rain is dedicated to my long-time partner and friend Peter Grant. Before he passed away in 2014, we used to love taking rain walks together.
See https://hildegardwesterkamp.ca/sound/comp/2/talking/
2 channels
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DISTANT LINES ON A NEARBY SHORE
Shorelines – a very common geographical sight around maritime Southeast Asia. Within the same region, the gong chime culture is omnipresent, with each region bearing their own unique characteristics, such as the gamelan, kulintang, and further out, the piphat. Yet in Singapore, a centrally located island city-state, these gone chimes seem almost alien to us.
In many of these cultures, music is created through a sophisticated system of stratified polyphony, where many related individual lines interact with one another within the musical textures. I used this concept to create a double oxymoron in the title. It presents the illusion that a nearby coastline may be miles away. It also symbolises the exoticism of gamelan in Singapore despite our location.
To this end, I often pondered about Singapore’s relationship with the gong chime culture. I turned to the electronic medium to express the technological advanced and youthful arts landscape. The cultural confluence in the multicultural landscape also presents an opportunity to superimpose different gong chime sets together, and in this piece, using samples from the Javanese, Balinese, and Sundanese gamelan. Who knows what results might come from such an experiment?
In many of these cultures, music is created through a sophisticated system of stratified polyphony, where many related individual lines interact with one another within the musical textures. I used this concept to create a double oxymoron in the title. It presents the illusion that a nearby coastline may be miles away. It also symbolises the exoticism of gamelan in Singapore despite our location.
To this end, I often pondered about Singapore’s relationship with the gong chime culture. I turned to the electronic medium to express the technological advanced and youthful arts landscape. The cultural confluence in the multicultural landscape also presents an opportunity to superimpose different gong chime sets together, and in this piece, using samples from the Javanese, Balinese, and Sundanese gamelan. Who knows what results might come from such an experiment?
2 channels
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Gelora jalur bunyi
Gelora Jalur Bunyi is an innovative and immersive experimental music composition that seamlessly melds traditional musical elements with the ethereal, otherworldly vibrations of electromagnetic fields . Through this unique fusion, the composition paints an ambient sonic landscape that serves as a poignant commentary on the pressing issue of climate change.
The integration of traditional music with electromagnetic field recordings and sensor based performance creates an ambient soundscape that immerses the listener in a sensory experience that mirrors the multifaceted nature of climate change. The music and electromagnetic elements coexist, sometimes harmoniously and at other times in dissonance, echoing the complex relationship between nature and human activity.
The integration of traditional music with electromagnetic field recordings and sensor based performance creates an ambient soundscape that immerses the listener in a sensory experience that mirrors the multifaceted nature of climate change. The music and electromagnetic elements coexist, sometimes harmoniously and at other times in dissonance, echoing the complex relationship between nature and human activity.
2 channels
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AWAKENING
"Awakening" is a musical composition that invites you to reflect on the issue of global warming in a more accessible and engaging way. The purpose of this composition is to serve as a musical reminder to cherish and protect our environment while offering a sense of hope for a better and more sustainable future. The piece explores environmental concerns associated with global warming, infusing a sense of hope and optimism by capturing awareness through the whispering winds, the crackling fires, the metallic echoes, the spark of electricity, and the harmonious voice of the natural world. These elements harmonize to create a soundscape that is both thought-provoking and uplifting.
8 channels
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Photographs of water
At an artists' residency in Florida in 2008, I met two poets whose voices caught my ear and whose words hooked my thoughts. David, in his twenties, voraciously inquisitive, contemplated mortality. Ann, in her eighties, looked back questioningly on a life well lived. They recorded several poems with me, to use in this piece Beyond the poems, I recorded many new sound materials, and drew others from a personal catalogue spanning a decade. Instrumental materials owe to my alter-ego as violinist and conductor. Many of the sounds were recorded in Britain and France. A tentative conversation between ages, and places, the piece is a contemplation of the passing of time and lives. The texts are excerpts from Drought, Life, and Photo of my Dad by David Bartone (1980 –); and Kayak (complete), and excerpts from On Entering My Seventies and Reading the Tao Te Ching at Eighty, by Ann Brewer Knox (1926 – 2011). Orchestral materials were recorded with the University of Bristol Symphony Orchestra. The pipe band was recorded at a street parade at the Festival de Cornouaille 2012 in Quimper, Brittany. Photographs of Water received its first performances at the Electroacoustic WALES concert at Bangor University on7 November 2013, and in the Electric Café series at Rutgers University, NJ, on 12 November 2013.
2 channels
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Days & nights
Days and Nights is a spatial electroacoustic piece featuring Burmese Gong, Violin, Burmese Harp, Synthesizers, and multiple field recordings from Myanmar. The main concept behind this piece is to reflect the changes that are happening around and document them through the medium of sound.
Each layer in this sound work features multiple recordings of days and nights in Yangon (Former Capital of Myanmar) and is combined with Burmese Traditional Gong, harp, and experimental violin textures. Days and Nights tell stories about the changes happening and affecting in the environment of Myanmar through an immersive audio experience.
Each layer in this sound work features multiple recordings of days and nights in Yangon (Former Capital of Myanmar) and is combined with Burmese Traditional Gong, harp, and experimental violin textures. Days and Nights tell stories about the changes happening and affecting in the environment of Myanmar through an immersive audio experience.
8 channels
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SEED OF LIFE (SOL) IV: REST & SHELTER
This electroacoustic soundscape composition conjures for the listener the unheard soundworld that may have existed in prehistoric times in one of Malaysia's oldest and largest limestone caves, Gua Tempurung, which consists of five breathtaking natural chambers and fine underground rivers. The cave may have a long history shared by ancient prehistoric civilizations and other living beings, by serving as a temporary or permanent shelter to carry out their daily life activities including ritual, meditation and belief practices. Tambun Cave in Perak, Malaysia which is located about 30 kilometres from Tempurung Cave, Perak has remnants of prehistoric painting motifs on the cave walls. Rest and Shelter offers listeners the experience of a strong sense and spirit of place, through a state of rest and meditativeness, induced by the composed sounds derived from in-situ field recordings and found sound samples. The latter suggest small natural creatures, timid or random in motion.