A celebration of sound
Sometimes I fear that music has become a visual thing.
Elite entertainers are expected to have a stunning visual appearance--this has always the case. I'm not here to make disparaging remarks about pop music or popular entertainment.
However, even on the more creative and artsy side of things, I fear a lack of appreciation for pure sound.
Cutting edge digital music-making software and electronic tools often put accessibility last, or completely exclude it. Ableton Live, probably the best software for making dance music and experimental sound design, is pretty much totally inaccessible to the blind.
In performance, celebrated composers of new music make a radical parter from conventional sheet music notation, but they replace it with graphic scores. These graphics are supposed to help musicians access a new level of emotional engagement, but it's all just pblank paper to me.
Often one of the most challenging steps for me in releasing new album is acquiring sutable cover art. You can have an hour of music perfectly performed, recorded, mixed and mastered, but you can't upload it to the internet without cover art! Or at least streaming services and music retailers won't let you.
But I'm not here to hate on people who prefer to have to have a visual component to their listening experience.
I just want to suggest that sound is deeper than it often gets credit for.
In my opinion, music is just maticulously orchestrated sound (or vibrations if you want to get into the physics / metaphysics of it). As a composer and improviser, I spend hours studying and thinking about how the vibrations of different insturments (and different tunings of those instruments) add up to create surprising and emotionally resonant sounds.
"How does the drummer have their drums tuned?" and "How would this same piece of music feel different if that tuning was changed?" "How does the density of this instrumentation make me feel versus if this melody was accompanied by something smaller or different?" "How is this guitar interacting with the second percussionist and what spaces are they sharing or leaving open for each other?" These are just a few of the many deep ways you can dive into sound.
I know I'm biased because sound is my primary way of engaging with the world, but I love to see others exploring this side of things, because it can be infinitely satisfying.
Explore a world of sound in the context of visual art with me
This Saturday I'm presenting an event at the Art Institute that I think will be very fun. I'll be leading a tour of three galleries, but each gallery will have members and friends of the band performing to create a full multi media experience for this this art that is otherwise just visual.
The point isn't to describe the art, but to enhance it for all to experience. You can tell me that a sculpture is 6 feet tall, composed of such material, with stripes of this color and a trim of that color, but after awhile I tend to zone out, or at the very least don't get the full emotional feeling a sighted person gets standing in the presence of that sculpture (even if I have all the facts). Conversely, however, I can try to describe the way I hear a sound or combination of sounds, but it's not going to fully emotionally track for someone who is also used to receiving visual input. In this way, Saturday's tour / multi location concert will allow people to have different experiences in the same room, and try to share their experiences with one another, which I hope will lead to even more understanding of our different types of perception. + The music is just going to be really cool.
The event is free (though you do need to pay museum entrance) and goes from 2pm-3:30pm. I'm looking forward to having the most fun I've ever had in an art museum.