Recording: Public Recordings

Artist: Public Recordings

Song: To Valerie Solanas and Marilyn Monroe in Recognition of Their Desperation [excerpt, in two parts] [composer: Pauline Oliveros]

Recorded at City Hall's Council Chambers, February 17, 2018.

Public Recordings - To Valerie Solanas and Marilyn Monroe in Recognition of Their Desperation [excerpt, part 1]

Public Recordings - To Valerie Solanas and Marilyn Monroe in Recognition of Their Desperation [excerpt, part 2]

This joyfully ambitious undertaking saw Chris Willes and his Public Recordings crew bringing music — radical music, music that demands deep listening and focused attention — into the City Hall chambers, a space associated with noisemaking of a different kind. The culmination of a process reaching back a couple years (including its previous mounting at the Gardiner Museum), this version brought a larger audience and bigger crew of musicians into its larger space. (Adding to the logistical complexity of the entire undertaking, there were also a series of public rehearsals in different venues in the week leading up to the performance.)

The beginning of a new form of composition from Pauline Oliveros, this piece for open ensemble has guidelines, but few musical directives, meaning there are a wider range of possible sonic outcomes than with a through-composed piece. With simple instructions and shared light cues, this large ensemble of musicians and non-musicians weave together a drone symphony, a slow-moving sound-river that invites closed-eye meditation (though, especially in an environment such as this, also some open-eyed gawking at how the spectacle is creating itself). The participant list reveals artists from many fields coming together to make these sounds: Anne Bourne, Allison Cameron, Victoria Cheong, Prices Easy, Ishan Davé, Ellen Furey, Thom Gill, Claire Harvie, Ame Henderson, Brendan Jensen, Germaine Liu, Bee Pallomina, Liz Peterson, Heather Saumer, Brian Solomon, Anni Spadafora, Evan Webber, and Christopher Willes.

[This concert was co-presented by the Music Gallery, who have had an ongoing stream of Pauline Oliveros-related events this season. The last instalment of the Anne Bourne-facilitated Deep Listening Workshops ("Sounding Difference Through The Text Scores Of Pauline Oliveros") will be at 918 Bathurst on Sunday, April 28th. Free with registration.]