To hear on Sunday 21 and 28 April 2019, 2pm - 9pm:
(2013)
by Maggi Payne
Curator, loudspeaker installation: Knut Remond
Maggi Payne on 'Black Ice':
This work is an exploration of space and time, and especially of depth and height. Layers frequently shift, as demonstrated in the beginning where crackling is so present—almost seeming to emanate from the listener. The underlay provides a distanced atmosphere, almost a nebula, that moves towards, through, then past the listener, passing through the crackles while modifying their molecular structure and turning them to mist as they slowly recede.
All of the sounds are generated by the Moog IIIP. Many are raw; some are further actively eq’d to provide a further dynamic quality to the work. It was composited using a Pro Tools DAW.
Although I’ve used bits and pieces of sounds I created using the Moog synthesizer in my work from time to time, in mid-December of 2013 I had an overwhelming urge to escape into the Moog IIIP studio at Mills College to spend some quality time generating sounds and recording them to a pair of Sound Devices. It‘s fascinating to me just how flexible that instrument is.
As with any fine instrument, it fundamentally remains the same, but the way one approaches the instrument changes considerably over time. Its open architecture has allowed quite varied aesthetic and technical approaches to the instrument over the decades since it was first built.
Audio Field Report no. 27 (February 2015):
Interview with Maggi Payne by Knut Remond. Limited edition audio cassette, 8 copies numbered. Available at 'ohrenhoch, der Geräuschladen' (and heard on headphone in the ohrenhoch archive space).
Maggi Payne
In her works Maggi Payne architects/sculpts the acoustic space so that the sounds build a geometric shape, then reorient, contract, or expand to an entirely different shape, shrink to a pinpoint, then stretch again to form yet another “world.” At times multiple spaces coexist. There is always a sense of “place,” an atmosphere, in these acoustic constructs. The sounds are choreographed, as if they are dancers in three-dimensional space, with no walls, ceilings, or floors to constrain them.
Her electroacoustic works often incorporate visuals she creates using images ranging from nature to the abstract. She has composed music for dance, theatre, and video, including the music for Jordon Belson's video Bardo. She collaborated for years with video artist Ed Tannenbaum in his Technological Feets performances.
Her works have been presented in the Americas, Europe, Japan, Hong Kong and Australasia. She received Composer's Grants and an Interdisciplinary Arts Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and video grants from the Mellon Foundation and the Western States Regional Media Arts Fellowships Program, and received five honorary mentions from Bourges and one from Prix Ars Electronica.
Works appear on Aguirre, The Label, Innova, Starkland, Lovely Music, Root Strata, Music and Arts, Centaur, Ubuibi, MMC, New World (CRI), Digital Narcis, Frog Peak, Asphodel, and/OAR, Capstone, and Mills College labels. Excerpts of her videos are available on Vimeo.
Website Maggi Payne