Body Waves, the collaborative earthquake sound project of Stanier Black-Five & Malcolm Riddoch featured on the Nightline programme broadcast on New Zealand’s TV3 on Friday 27th July.
Malcolm Riddoch prepares for Body Waves at the Great Hall, Massey University, Wellington NZ
Date: 8pm Wednesday, July 18, 2012
The New Zealand premiere of Body Waves, Stanier Black-Five’s collaborative earthquake work with Dr Malcolm Riddoch – part of a programme of experimental electronic music works exploring the natural harmonic resonance of one of the largest acoustic spaces in New Zealand – the Great Hall at Massey University in Wellington.
In Body Waves Stanier Black-Five and Riddoch tune Stanier Black-Five’s Christchurch earthquake infrasonic soundscape into the lowest fundamental resonant frequencies of the Great Hall to create music that goes beyond the auditory system to be felt in the body.
This is preceded by three solo works by Riddoch, in which he uses the Larsen effect (microphone feedback) to ‘ring out’ the unique resonant frequencies of an acoustic space. The four works track the evolution of his practice from simple pure tones through interference effects with acoustic instruments to the use of acoustically derived digital feedback controllers driving the electronic manipulation of sound. The only audio source for these first three works is the ambient noise within the acoustic space itself.
Thanks to the support of the Sonic Arts programme at the New Zealand School of Music (a joint venture of Massey University and Victoria University of Wellington), Massey University College of Creative Arts and the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA).
A Lyttelton sound artist’s earthquake recordings will feature in the International Computer Music symposium in Slovenia in September… Read more.
Body Waves, an infrasonic quadraphonic earthquake performance, has been accepted for the International Computer Music Conference 2012 to be held in Ljubljana, Slovenia 9-15 September.
Composer: Stanier Black-Five and Dr Malcolm Riddoch
Title: Body Waves
Year: 2012
Instrumentation: Electroacoustic 4 channel playback
Duration: 30 mins
Program Note:
A live infrasonic performance whose sounds go beyond the auditory system to be felt in the body. The primary sound source in this exploration of vibroacoustic perception are the unique recordings made by Stanier Black-Five at the epicentre of the recent earthquakes in New Zealand, which capture the vibrations of its massive aftershocks, collapsing buildings and subsequent demolitions. These are transformed by Riddoch to accentuate the lower frequency harmonics of the performance space to immerse its audience/participants in a dynamically visceral music of the body.
Photograph by Motoko Kikkawa
Body Waves performance, Spectrum Project Space, 18/05/2012