June 11-12, 2011, Helsinki Finland

Organized by Äänen Lumo

Led by John Grzinich and Patrick McGinley

Temporal Soundings was a unique 2 day workshop and overnight retreat that took place at Galleria Oksasenkatu 11 and the surrounding urban area in central Helsinki. The focus of the workshop was on the temporal aspects of sound recording and site-specific sound activity combining found objects and spatial interventions. The program of the workshop revolved around working with and analyzing two contrasting times of day, midnight and mid-day. Using these two times as a frame, we looked at the natural soundscape, found materials and physical spaces as ‘sonic potential’ for human intervention. This involved a range of activities from passive listening exercises to more active explorations using improvisation and game play. The focus developed into working within an hour long session at opposite times of the day, midnight to 1 am and noon to 1 pm by 3 separate groups in different parts of the city. Several concise 5 minute field recordings were made by each group that explored both active and passive approaches to interventions within specific sites. Following these ‘magic hour’ sessions we listened back to the recordings to analyze the temporal aspects of the sounds, events and actions that were documented.

The following recordings are excerpts from recordings I made in collaboration with two of the participants, Kikka and Joel. The first half of each track was from the evening and the second was from the same location approximately 12 hours later. See what differences you notice while listening.

Passive field recording, small marina

Small intervention, tree and park sounds

Site-specific action, playing the Sibelius sculpture

Special thanks to the participants for their enthusiasm and energy and to Otso and Juuso for their exceptional organization.

During the week of April 11-17th, I spent the week in an area of Nuremberg known as Muggenhof, as part of a mini-Tuned City event. Our base was a building known as the Quelle, an extremely large facility that for many years, housed the distribution of goods from the Quelle catalog mail order company. The company has since closed so the building remains largely unused. We were very fortunate to have access to such a facility for the workshop.

The workshops focused on a wide variety of topics from recording techniques and microphone types to perception of sound and using architecture as an instrument. Because of the relatively low turnout of participants everyone worked together sharing knowledge and experiences.

The following recording was composed from a series of sound actions that intended to highlight the acoustic qualities of seven different spaces in the Quelle. For each recording the same set objects and structure of action was used. In this case 4 metal waste baskets found in the building were dragged evenly from corner to corner by 4 people.

Other aspects of the workshop included sound recording theory and practice overview led by Derek Holzer. This led to mapping and recording of sounds throughout the Muggenhof district by participants of the workshop. A ‘sound map’ was then made using the Radio Aporee Maps interface and presented at the end of the week. Click on the image below to see the map.

The scale of the Quelle building is impressive. One can spend hours wandering the 5 floors, much as I did. A survey of the Quelle spaces can be seen and heard in this video (please use headphones):

Click here to view the embedded video.

Special thanks to Carsten, Rene, Jurgen for helping organize this, the city of Nürnberg for support and especially to the participants of our workshops for their time and energy.

‘revenant : zeltini’ 01:05:07

unfathomless 05 CD

site-specific session with: Eamon Sprod (Tarab), Max Shentelevs, John Grzinich, Kaspars Kalninsh and Felicity Mangan

recorded November 15, 2008 at Zeltini, Latvia

mixed the following months from 4 synchronized binaural recordings (or ‘multi-naural’ as I refer to it).

‘revenant‘ is an ongoing project with open membership that focuses on site-specific acoustic actions. All sounds originate from materials found in-situ, and from interactions with the space itself.

Zelitini is a former Soviet military base located in the forests of Northeastern Latvia which is now abandoned. This particular base housed missiles from the Soviet nuclear arsenal that needed to be stored in large horizontal bunkers. On this visit we arrived rather late and found that most of the bunkers had been locked up. As it grew dark and cold we decided to set up in the last open bunker to record as we new it would be our only chance to collaborate in this unique space.

Reviews

An ongoing project with open membership, that is what Revenant is about. On their second (?) CD, we find John Grzinich again, but with four new members, Maksims Shentelevs, Eamon Sprod, Kaspars Kalninsh and Felicity Mangan. The five of them went to Zeltini, a former Soviet army base in Latvia and they looked for some stuff to create music with, as this is another angle of Revenant. Find material on the site, and play that as it were instruments, using the space as its concert space or studio. Again we are not told how this was recorded or edited, but for about fifty plus minutes we hear these five persons moving through the bunker space, toying around with the various objects they found in this space, like glass, stones and metal. This is done in a musical manner, through means of improvisation. Not a random scattering of debris, but listening and interacting with each other and creating music with non-musical objects. There are overtones to be found here, which are hard to place (wind? somebody blowing a pipe?), which add a nice textural tone to the proceedings. Maybe like the previous one, this is the natural element that is being used here. I am not entirely sure. The only reference I could think of is the recent work of Jeph Jerman – closely miked acoustic objects being played, but then in the large resonating bunker in Latvia. Not the most easy listening one around, but surely some great music has been captured here. (Frans de Waard on Vital Weekly)

Revenant (I can’t help but think of some especially powerful and frightening figures from Doom) on this occasion, November 2008 in Latvia, consisted of Maksims Shentelevs, Eamon Sprod, John Grzinich, kaspars Kalninsh and Felicity Mangan (though Grzinich writes: “‘revenant’ is an ongoing project with open membership”). No instrumentation is mentioned and, further, there’s a notation on the sleeve stating, “Final piece edited from 4 synchronized binaural recordings”.
Perhaps it’s the cover imagery, maybe the former-SSR setting, but it’s quite tempting to hear this dark, brooding music as inhabiting a Stalker-like environment. There’s an oppressiveness, a dank aspect wherein one thinks of cold, clammy surfaces, algae-covered wall, ancient heavy machinery. The two overriding sounds areas are a blurred, metallic kind of drone, as though there’s a sputtering engine at work somewhere down the dark corridor and the clanking of light metal objects, linked like chains, skittering across the foreground. Small rhythms emerge: soft-mallet taps with a vaguely gamelan feel, as though at least one of the devices lying around still functions. Some faint voices then, rather surprisingly, a jew’s harp, strumming away in a loose rhythm, verging on a melodic fragment, a hapless fellow traveler in the sewers. This continues for the final 10+ minutes of the work, some increasingly violent clatter alongside, until the sounds skid to a conclusion among the chirps of mechanical beetles and sloshing water.
The work is almost static, in a sense, minor events drifting in and out of focus; again, one thinks of the lengthy water-covered floor shot of Tarkovsky, though the focus here isn’t quite so sharp. (Brian Olewnick on Just Outside)

Revenant is an open-membership project carried on by a number of specialists of location recording, in this occasion the quintet of Maksims Shentelevs, Eamon Sprod, John Grzinich, Kaspars Kalninsh and Felicity Mangan. The environment inspiring this release is an abandoned Soviet military base in a Latvian forest, comprising large horizontal bunkers where missiles were once stored. One of them – the only that hasn’t been shut yet – was used for a semi-transcendental experience in which the participants spread around the place in almost total darkness, “feeling my way through the space by hand and by ear” as noted by Sprod. As always in this sort of venture, we have to divide things. On a side, the value of the product as a document of a unique event, obviously higher for those who lived it. On the other, audiences at home trying to find elements of interest in something that risks sounding as a thousand of products of comparable origin. In this case, the professionalism of the people involved and their ability of determining the building’s responsiveness and its inherent musicality made the difference and – although I wouldn’t say that the album is really special – a good part of the resounding materials is sufficiently evocative to justify the need of spinning the disc several times to look for additional details and psychological hints. At any rate, let me be very explicit: in this house, stretched frequency auras and baffling resonances will forever be preferred to rustling noises and “scrape, rattle ‘n’ roll” incidents, of which there’s no shortage here. (Massimo Ricci on Touching Extremes)

exploring subjectivity and territory through sound, bridging acoustic processes with social and digital communication…

New Maps of Time, Prague/Kladno Czech Republic (10.2009)

New Maps of Time, Istanbul Turkey (2.2010)

New Maps of Time, Calgary Canada (4.2010)

New Maps of Time, Malmö Sweden (5.2010)

New Maps of Time, Torun Poland (4.2011)

New Maps of Time, Vienna Austria (8.2011)

Concept

‘New Maps of Time’ is a project and workshop about mapping spaces (mental, architectural and natural) using sound as a means to express actions within a space. The project process works with the basic understanding that artistic creativity can be a ritual by which we live out and  share the subjectivity of our own experiences. This inherent subjectivity must be  understood not only as an intellectual notion but through means of participatory activity on  different levels of personal, collaborative (between artists) and contextual actions (interventions in a space). The emphasis here is on subjectivity as articulated through direct experience of social intervention over the mediated representational forms of listening we are used to (“music” and “entertainment” of mass media).

Sound, as perceived by one of our primary senses hearing, is one of the best ways in which to explore the subjectivity of personal and collective experience and to test our own creative abilities. By using sound we develop means to map both space and social relations with our own cognitive process. In order to refine these cognitive maps we introduce constraints such as activities, materials, durations and the physical dimensions of the surrounding build environment. These constraints are the boundaries by which we can reference our own activities for interpretation and discussion to help further refine the activities.

In addition, we employ more objective external references (commonly known as recorded media) to add to the mix. The plethora of digital media recording devices offer a set of tools from which to develop an array audio-visual narratives for sharing on the local level and throughout any network these devices may be connected. Both processes, the cognitive and the mediated aim to increase the level at which we find recursive modes of information exchange integrated with the artistic working method.

Process Plan

The project involves spending time in and around the city, mapping various spaces and locations through sound and listening (parks, public squares, roof tops, industrial buildings etc.). Using simple objects and tools (glass jars, plates, wires, found objects etc…) we are able to also activate the spaces we find. I  would like to work with a small team of students or local artists to help play these objects as a sort of free-form ensemble who gets to develop their abilities through the activities of the project. These participants can be local artists from abroad. I will record these actions and keep a record of the times and places where they took place (and make short films from video recordings as well).

The actions will involve generating acoustic sounds and patterns from the objects we have and/or find in the space to activate each location. Working together we will explore the balance between our gestures and movements to create sounds and the intelligibility by which we communicate through sounds (this has been thoroughly explored in various workshops. See the documentation from the Sound as Space, Sound as Language workshop developed with Patrick McGinley and Maksims Shentelevs or the Revenant sound project.

At the end of each action the working group would evaluate their experiences in a short discussion session as well as by listening to or watching the recordings. A selection of the recordings would be made and edited for the potentially use in the final performance lecture. The sound recordings would also be uploaded on the internet to Radio Aporee Maps which gives an overview from areal satellite maps of the different locations.

Performance/Lecture

The final presentation phase would be a “New Maps of Time” performance/lecture on the “sound mapping” process using the various materials collected and edited during the  residency including sounds, video, website, Radio Aporee, and even the objects used. This mix of material offers a representative experience of the workshop as compressed time, a nonlinear narrative with which to engage the public. As much as possible, the presentation space itself would be transformed into an instrument, a hollow body to enter and and be transported to the spaces and shared experiences of the working group from the previous weeks.

This workshop may also be used to give a basic overview on both technical and artistic processes of sound and video production.

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prele records has released a CD of revenant : topoló along with 12 page booklet of texts by the artists. Available from December 2008.

revenant : topoló took place on October 19th, 2006 in a forest near the border of Italy and Slovenia. participants in this action were yannick dauby, olivier feraud, john grzinich, hitoshi kojo and patrick mcginley (aka murmer).

video of a revenant sound action made in the hollow metal shell of an electrical substation on lake peipsi near the russian border. the participants are eamon sprod (tarab), maksims shentelevs, kaspars kalnins and myself.

recorded november 16, 2008. note the sound of ducks flying overhead towards the end.

revenant : põdra has been released as a free MP3 by Compost and Height and involved Yannick Dauby,  Maksims Shentelevs and myself. This live unedited recording was made on the evening of June 13th, 2007 in southeastern Estonia.

revenant : pődra (13:33, 192k mp3): revenant : pődra

What is revenant?

‘revenant’ is an ongoing project with open membership that focuses on site-specific acoustic actions. all sounds originate from materials found in-situ, and from interactions with the space itself.

This workshop focused on sound as transmitter of nonverbal information, whether as a tool for communication or as a description of physical or imaginary space. We focused on sound’s ability to define/describe space, and on our ability to resonate, alter or create space by using sound. We also explored animal communication and group activity using simple everyday objects. A strong focus was placed on environmental listening, and the development of the ear towards detailed sonic perception. Using small acoustic objects and the space itself, we experimented with methods of group nonverbal sonic communication, with giving our location a voice, and with creating new spaces towards an understanding of sonic scenography. The workshop opened with an extended listening session, after which the participants  worked through a series of sonic games and were asked to bring objects to use in the later stages. -patrick mcginley

Tampere Finland

This was a 3 day revenant workshop organized by Rajataide artists association of Tampere. We would like to thank our hosts for their efforts and the participants for their time and energy. The group was small but diverse and included students of various disciplines, artists, a teacher and a journalist. Apart from the excersises, some important topics were raised in many discussions we had, including; recognition of sound sources, analysis and rationalization in listening, imaginary vs real spaces, sound aesthetics, meaningful soundscapes, awareness and sharpening of senses, the role of technology, sound perception in different cultural contexts, rules of agreement in groups, sonic power vs group power, sound as emotional, textural and gestural signs, “primitive” and “tribal” feelings, sound as non-verbal information and much more.

Bytom / Wrocław Poland

HELL OF THINGS

2 performances and a sound workshop with murmer (patrick mcginley)

jgrzinich/murmer – opening concert:
19:00, saturday, 7th february

revenant : bytom – sound workshop:
friday and saturday, 13-14th of february

opening performance
murmer/jgrzinich live at Kronika gallery (excerpt recorded by patrick mcginley): download link
rynek 26, bytom, poland

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plus: Galleria Entropia

jgrzinich/murmer live in Wrolcaw

18:00, free
zeźnicza 4, wrocław

Special thanks to Krzysztof Gutfrański for helping organize all this and for taking photos!

Here is a video about the performance in Wroclaw. It was billed as “Revenant Sound” which is not entirely accurate. While we do use many elements of the space and participation of those who are present, there are many added elements and aided sounds as well. Anyway its good to see how people interpret this…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Riga / Pedvale Latvia

This sound workshop was given from August 29 – September 7 2008 in Latvia. The first part was in Riga and the second at the Pedvale open air museum. The workshop was a collaborative effort between Patrick McGinley, Max Shentelevs and myself. Several locations will be included with a live performance event at NOASS on 7.9 with:

- PB8 (LT)
- soundmeccano (LV)
- Patrick McGinley (US/FR)
- bērnu rīts / elffriede / joy laav (LV/AT/FIN)

Listen to an excerpt of the “soundwalk” group sound action: mp3_file

It was a pleasure to work more with old friends and meet new people. Special thanks to all those who gave their time and energy to this workshop.

Full details about this workshop can be found on the Sound as Space, Sound as Language website.

Last week during the MoKS Kultuurijaam event in Tartu, Patrick McGinley and Maksims Shentelevs gave an excellent sound workshop entitled “sound as space / sound as language”. I won’t give a rundown of all that happened (because I was busy with my own workshop), but I’ll leave you with a mix I made from some of the material that was recorded during the workshop.

Sound as Space – jgrzinich mix (15:00) Estonia, February 2008: Download Link

There was also a sound workshop given by Lau Nau of Finland. She worked with groups of children to generate original improvised soundtracks to films. This has been an ongoing project for Lau Nau to explore her interest in making live film soundtracks.

(photos by evelyn müürsepp)

For the month of September visual and sound artist Jim Haynes was in the MoKS residency. Towards the end of the month we made an excursion with Jim and fellow artist Toomas Thetloff to one of my favorite “lost” places in Estonia, the former collective farm site known as “Avangard” (yes, that was its name). Avangard is about a 20 minute drive north of Tartu and is now mostly a collection of old barns, decaying structures and small local industries. Nonetheless the place provides us with a number of possibilities for site-specific sound activites. Last year, along with Toomas, Patrick McGinley and Hitoshi Kojo we made a special performance evening at Avangard on the occasion of the traditional Estonian “jaanipäaev” or mid-summer day as well as several earlier recording sessions.

On this visit I was particularly drawn to the abundance of decaying and rusted metal on the numerous structures around the site. It may have been because of Jim’s interest in rusting and corrosive processes that are prevalent in his visual work of which I have an interest but have never worked with directly. Interestingly one of the stories told by Jim at his artist talk at Y-Gallery in Tartu, was about attempting to translate the rusting process into sound by somehow recording it. Although he explained his attempts were not entirely successful the idea is intriguing. The next best thing then, is to maybe use rust itself as a sound element in exploring the surfaces and textures of resonant objects. This is part of what was happening in our last session at Avangard. So besides the macro images I captured with my camera (above), there was a certain degree of rusted textures that found their way into our sonic explorations. I’m posting a few excerpts from our recordings below.

Avangard Rust 1 (4:25) Estonia, September 2007: Download Link

Avangard Rust 2 (2:50) Estonia, September 2007: Download Link