With few exceptions, the perception of sound is, by nature, inseparable from the space it occupies. Sound waves reflect off of the surfaces within built structures-wood, metal, plaster, glass and more. Building materials and spatial dimensions interact with sound waves, shaping the auditory experience in key ways.

Recording technologies are able to capture the auditory qualities of a given space at a particular moment in time. When recordings are played back through speakers in a gallery or performance space, one location’s aural framework (or soundscape) is layered onto the aural framework of a new location through amplification. These aural superimpositions can create strange cognitive dissonance and rich layers of meaning.

Chicago-based artist Olivia Block will address these ideas in relation to her own work. Block creates original sound compositions for concerts, site-specific multi-speaker installations, live cinema and live performance utilizing field recordings, chamber instruments and electronic textures. In addition to her recorded and solo performance pieces, she creates scores for large ensemble, string quartet and orchestra. Block has performed, premiered and exhibited her work throughout Europe, America and Japan.

Stereo sound installation

Commissioned by the Cambridge-based company tick tock to coincide with the 500th anniversary of Thomas More’s Utopia, Tektology originates as a machine tracing of discarded ductwork, recorded and amplified in overlay to the shape and dimensions of innumerable concentric spaces. The rotary motion of the sound alludes both to utopia as a closed totality and an event perpetually forestalled, whilst fixing each listener at the centre of the soundscape, in abstract or isolated equality to their neighbour.

*Tektology will be presented in spaces of different dimensions throughout the festival.

Mural is the trio of Australian wind-player Jim Denley, Norwegian guitarist Kim Myhr and Norwegian percussionist Ingar Zach. MURAL began performing in 2007, and the trio has released works and performed around the world since. Each musician has an outstanding relationship with their respective instruments, and through their collaboration a distinct language and a sensitive, nuanced music has evolved.

A point of interest for this group is the space in which they perform and developing a unique sound world within it. For our Friday night concert, the trio will create a durational, site-specific, improvisational performance in the visually impressive and sonically dramatic space of Knox United Church.