Recording: The Imaginary Percussion Ensemble

Artist: The Imaginary Percussion Ensemble

Songs: Study for Claps #2 & #3

Recorded at Array Space (Rooted, Somewhere There, and Mechanical Forest Sound present), July 9, 2017.

The Imaginary Percussion Ensemble - Study for Claps #2

The Imaginary Percussion Ensemble - Study for Claps #3

Normally the night of its monthly Second Sunday series, Somewhere There instead decided to open things up, inviting a couple co-conspirators to each bring an act to this show. This set, convened by Somewhere There's own Joe Sorbara brought together a crew of musicians to explore some sonic realms inspired by local master percussionist Germaine Liu.

Liu joined in for some of the pieces, while Sorbara was joined by percussionist Mark Zurawinski as well as non-percussionists Emily Denison (trumpet) and Anthony Argatoff (saxophone). For this crew, exploring Liu's pieces meant treating them playfully, as an opportunity to see what happens when the parameters are altered. So, for example, "Study for Claps" was approached in three different ways: first as a straight ahead pattern exercise for three pairs of clapping hands, then with horn improvisations triggered by the patterns, and finally with the horns joining in with percussive clap-blats. The idea of "imaginary percussion" was pushed even further in a pair of runthroughs of "The Sound I Want to Hear" (a piece by Sorbara), first as a drumkit duo with him and Zurawinski, then by giving the drum chart to the horn players to extrapolate a melody from the rhythmic elements.

[Somewhere There's Second Sunday series continues this weekend (August 13th) with a set from Québec's Sonia Paço-Rocchia offering realtime electroacoustic manipulations for bassoon and visuals, plus a quartet encounter with the SWT organizing team.]