To hear on Sunday September 28 and October 5, 2008, 2 pm till 9 pm:
Clear Dawn: Meditations from Paparoa and Kapiti Island
by Sarah Peebles
Sarah Peebles on 'Clear Dawn':
'Clear Dawn' was inspired by my experiences recording birds in Aotearoa/New Zealand 2004-2005, and in coming together with a wide variety of people whom I met along the way. A traditional Mäori (indigenous peoples) concept shared with me by Gary Millan in Paraparaumu - near Kapiti Island, one of the recording sites - seemed to reflect the essence of my experience while spending focused, long periods of time on the land while recording or in just being. It roughly translates into English as 'that which is just beyond our perception'. This idea is a part of The Mäori legend identifying three concepts of knowledge contained in Ngä kete o te Wänanga (Baskets of Knowledge). According to the legend, the first basket contains ritual chants and prayers, the second basket contains all practical knowledge, and the third basket contains the sources of good and evil. 'That which is just beyond our perception' is a concept from the 3rd Basket. As I explored and transformed my field recordings into new sonic expressions, I was inspired by this concept and also by the poems 'The Long Dream of Waking' and 'A Short Dream of Knowing', penned in 1948 by New Zealand artist Leonard Charles Huia Lye.
'Clear Dawn' features transformations of birds I recorded at or near dawn in Paparoa National Park (South Island West coast) and at Kapiti Island (North Island West coast), and, of bees gathered atop and inside glass jugs as recorded from inside the vessels - their wingsvibrating against the glass, causing the containers to ring at their resonant frequencies - recorded with the assistance of Frank Lindsay at Lindsay's
Apiaries, near Wellington. Additionally, de-tuned and digitally processed shoh (Japanese mouth-organ) is elemental to the piece both sonically and conceptually. An instrument of mysterious and ethereal beauty, the shoh has historically been associated in ancient China and Japan as embodying the Phoenix (an auspicious mythical bird) in form and sound, and is still used today in Japan where, among other things, it accompanies deities in their journey to and from the spirit world during Shinto ceremonies. Underpinning these sounds are modulated frogs, recorded at dusk in Singapore while returning to Canada, and processed train sounds en route from Toronto to Montréal. Structurally, this work is a combination of pre-determined, carefully constructed materials, of chance operations involving libraries of sampled sound chosen and mixed by computer via simple algorithms, and of fairly long stretches of ambient recordings of habitat.
Sarah Peebles
is a Toronto-based composer, improviser and installation artist. Her studies have included violin, composition and Japanese traditional musics. Much of her practice focuses on digitally manipulated found sound projected via loudspeakers and/or physical objects, and developing distinct approaches to acoustic and amplified improvisation on the shoh, the Japanese mouth-organ used in gagaku.