Spellbeamed. Yes, I was definitely spellbeamed to another time and place. Why do I say that? Well, this performance was certainly very peculiar and bizarre, if those words could accurately describe what I saw and heard.
All I really knew going in to this performance was that this was an avant-garde type of performance. This perhaps was not the first of this kind of performance, but it was my first time experiencing such a strange production. I have never heard of such sounds and noises being made by anyone before. This being said, I actually enjoyed it to an extent. Granted there were dissonant moments, but there were also some cool things that the performers did.
I must say the whole thing did strike me as strange but at the same time I thought it was really interesting. In the first part, two women, Shayna Dunkelman and Zeena Parkins, were dressed in white coats and white gloves that made it seem like they were researchers or archeologists looking and examining the items in front of them. Some of the items in front of them were a brush, horsehair, and ribbon. Ms. Parkins proceeded to pass items to Ms. Dunkelman, who “played” each item on a harp laying on its side. I liked the different sounds each object made; the “artifacts” made interesting and unexpected sounds as they were “played” on the harp. While this was going on, a woman, Ms. Joan La Barbara, portraying the dead Walter Benjamin using a voice modifier, was reciting one of his essays. It was hard to understand what she was saying; I only heard bits and pieces like the words “bookkeeper” and “collector.” At times I found it difficult to focus on one woman, but all in all, I thought it was a really cool piece of work.
The performance then proceeded to the stage, where there were musicians from Ne(x)tworks Ensemble and JACK Quartet who played violins, trombone, and harp, just to name a few instruments. These players played both traditional notated music as well as music in the form of pictures. As pictures came up on the screen, each player interpreted them and produced different sounds. Some of the images were paper clips, coins, and a bus. They all were very expressive, intense, and powerful in their playing and movements as they played their music. I give them credit for being able to play in what others may call the “wrong way” because often times when one knows how to play the “right way” it makes it harder to play anyway else.
Some sounds that the musicians produced were dissonant; other sounds were really, really strange. At times I felt a bit overwhelmed by how many different sounds being made at once on stage, but there were also times where I felt I could enjoy the music. The part I really enjoyed was when I saw the piano player, Stephen Gosling, interpret into music a black dot that came on the screen. He played the piano with such power and intensity. I could barely see his hands. I thought that was amazing; I wished I could play like that. The part of the performance I found to be really strange and haunting were the noises coming from Ms. La Barbara’s voice. She seemed to be making sounds I never knew were humanly possible; I don’t know how she made them. Other noises that were produced sounded like when bombs drop in cartoons and the turbines of a plane. It felt so real; I felt like I should be on a plane and taking off.
The use of pictures as music during the performance was interesting. It actually got me thinking about how pictures could have been used as notes. Ancient civilizations, like Egypt, used pictures, hieroglyphics, as written language, why not use pictures as notes? It seems odd to do that now because we have become accustomed to seeing music as 5 lines with black round circles on them, but pictures could have been used as a representation of music; pictures could have been just as valid, perhaps not for use as musical notation now, but maybe it was back in ancient times.
Although many people did not like the performance, I enjoyed watching them play music in a different way. I do agree that it was weird, strange, peculiar, any other type of word along those lines that you could think of, but it was definitely interesting. I certainly don’t think I’ll be forgetting it anytime soon.
