SoundWalk

SoundWalk 2007

 

LIVE REVIEW: SOUNDWALK 2007

Chris Ziegler Wed. September 26

Two monks with bells and horns glided out of the East Village Art Park, and said, “Follow us!” And so I did, as stragglers from the Bicycle Bell Ensemble pedaled past to practice, and the monks (later greeted as members of the hop-frog kollektiv) honked amiably down the sidewalk through the most sophisticated, ambitious and engaging SoundWalk so far. Presenters FLOOD have it all figured out—a winning mix of performances and installations and free-roaming wild weirdness. Koo’s held standouts like the Touch Music kids, motionless on stage with flutes and violins; poke or shake them and they’d wiggle out appropriate musical response, though almost everyone was too shy to make contact. Eventually they started playing themselves—charming and cute. Later they made Nap Music and curled up in a cuddly pile. Tristan Shone’s adjacent Drone Machines—custom-built industrial monsters he’d dragged up from San Diego—won heavy response; Shone built resistance into his machines and was visibly struggling with chains and levers during a short and less-loud-than-it-wanted set of Sunn O)))-style improv doom. Midnight Gardeners (with members of Coaxial) were soaking zoned-out tones and drones into the Lafayette’s under-used Dome Room, and in the kitchen next door, Daniel Corral had two beautiful mass music boxes—each with 100 cranks attached to a different tiny tune, and each with a cluster of curious people twisting and bending in to listen. Next was Robert Strong’s eerie solo drum—a floor tom striking itself with a mallet and a cloud of quiet digital noise from an amp beside, and in the old {open} was a flock of pinging tin cans on the floor (by Lewis Keller) and a wire-frame laser cannon (by Philip Stearns) beeping at too-close public examination. Cement Records had warhorse turntables and purposely glued-over records—the Disney records come out good, advised artist David Kendall, and so an orchestral score dissolved under a half-blacked out LP. Way in the dark back room was one of the most striking pieces—Leslie Markle and Eric Strauss’ “Digital Ouija” session in search of Signal Hill’s Kid Mexico, with a humming Tesloid coil keeping an eye on creepy proceedings. And that was just one street on one block—then the Bicycle Bell Ensemble (conducted by Patrick Miller) went jingling over the crosswalk on the way to the next, trailing more people who knew to follow a good thing when they found it.

SW07 PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:

Aaron Drake / Adam Overton / Albert Ortega / Allie Bogle and Mike Chang / Andrew Bucksbarg and Charlie Hoyt / Arcanum / Autumn Hays / Bicycle Bell Ensemble / Braden Diotte / Carrie Yury, Lindsay Ljungkull and Marya Alford / Charles Erwin / Christiaan Cruz / Daniel Corral / David Kendall / David Drodge / Doug Pearsall / Elonda Billera / Erin Scott / Fret De Wilde / FLOOD / Fluorescent Grey / Gary Raymond / GirlCharlie and Monica Ryan / Hans Tammen / hop-frog / James N. Orsher / Jeff Foye and Gordon Winiemko / Jim McAuley / Joe Potts / john kannenberg / Josh Goldman / Kate and Lee Harding / Kate Henningsen / Kevin Paul / Lewis Keller & Cat Lamb / Lindsay Foster / Luis Garcia and Matt Bridges / Madelyn Byrne, Ellen Weller and Randy Hoffman / Mannlicher Carcano / Markle and Strauss / midnight gardeners / Miha Ciglar / MLuM / Nicole C. Russell / Nina Waisman / Noah Thomas / Phillip Curtis / Phillip Stearns / phog masheeen / Redux / Robert Strong / RS-232 / Sabine Pinkepank / Sander Roscoe Wolff / smgsap / Surrealestate / Thomas Anthony McDermott / Tom Skelly / Tom Sky / Tristan Shone / Tropic of Cancer / Yann Novak & Gretchen Bennett

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