This piece of music consists of loops that were triggered in real-time through an app by people who live with chronic pain or fatigue and who were resting over a period of a week when ‘A Crash Course in Cloudspotting’ - a piece by Unchartered Collective, directed by Raquel Meseguer-Zafe - was shared as part of the Unlimited Festival at the South Bank Centre in London in January 2021. 

The ‘resting loops’ were triggered in real-time by participants whenever they were resting, thus giving a sonic sense of a ‘community of resters’ and a stream of the resulting composition was broadcast 24 hours a day during the festival period. Personally, I found it very moving to tune in to the stream at different moments and to be able to hear that I was being kept and keeping company with other people around the country as they rested.

As audiences ‘gathered’ online for a digital performance of the piece, the ‘resting loops’ were joined by others triggered by them as they ‘arrived for the performance’ to give an aural sense of the audience coming together to hear the piece … a bit like gathering in the foyer before a theatre piece.

This excerpt was recorded during the period from 16'26" - 16' 53" on Saturday 16th January 2021 in a period just before a performance, so you can hear both the ‘resting’ and ‘gathering’ loops.

All loops performed and composed by Jamie McCarthy. Composition in collaboration with the ‘resters’ and audience members.

Binaural spatialisation by Charles Webber.

More information about the project at: 
https://uncharteredcollective.com/


Photo Credit: Paul Samuel White

A Crash Course in Cloudspotting - Rester And Audience Loops: 16.01.21 (16'26" - 16' 53")

Miniture Dance from Of Land And Tongue, Theo Clinkard Dance

Flocking- "somewhat still when seen from above" Choreography- Theo Clinkard for TW Pina Bausch

Kali Malone’s “Organ Dirges 2016 - 2017" is a collection of isorhythmic canons following the tradition of pipe organ requiems found in early modern music. Malone’s purified organ dirges echo embodied recollections of the piercing numbness of those battled encounters when the armours were stripped down, left with nothing other than will power, yet still standing upright as the columns of Sounion. The soothing and perceptive harmonies resonate to a presence that leans elegantly towards a courageous aftermath and a gleaming salutation. While the dirges themselves have minimal melodic and rhythmic variation, they appear in constant cyclical motion, revealing their refracted selves in a coherent yet unpredictable manner; like a rotating wheel where all spokes are perceptible but at any given moment in a different place.

Kali Malone (b. 1994, Colorado) is an American artist living and working in Stockholm, Sweden since 2012. Her solo works implement unique tuning systems in minimalist form for analog and digital synthesis often combined with acoustic instrumentation - such as pipe organ, string and wind instruments, lute and gong. Malone’s 2017 debut LP “Velocity of Sleep” was released on her own label XKatedral following tape releases put out by Ascetic House, Bleak Environment and Total Black. She is active in the groups Sorrowing Christ, Swap Babies, Upper Glossa with Caterina Barbieri. Her sophomore LP “Cast of Mind” is due spring 2018.

http://shop.ascetic.house

ASCETIC HOUSE
201∞

Kali Malone "Locus Of Repetition"

Opening - from This Bright Field, choreography by Theo Clinkard

Meeting - from The Days, duet with Maria Nurmela & Ville Oinonen, directed by Theo Clinkard

Theme - from The Days, duet with Maria Nurmela & Ville Oinonen, directed by Theo Clinkard

The Sacrificial Code

Kali Malone - Litanic Cloth Wrung (from "The Sacrificial Code" iDEAL 2xLP/3xCD)

This is the culprit. I just watered it and heard a strange sound from the wall up where it stands. I thought it was a radio in my neighbour's apartment or something. When I lifted up the pot the sound almost stopped (very quiet). Somehow a vibration from the pot carries through the surface it stands on like a tuning fork. I put the plant on this little glass table and put two DPA 4660s next to it. It was not a loud sound but clearly audible to the naked ear. Input level at +60db on the MixPre recorder. I de-noised the file slightly in RX but the rest is untouched. I recorded at 192KHz to see if anything strange was happening above 20KHz, but that space was empty. After about 7 minutes the sound ended. I really can't comprehend how it was produced.

Recording of the sound of a potted plant after being watered

The first in a series of six, hour-long radio essays, commissioned by Soundart Radio, that weave poetry, nonfiction, theory, soundart and performance together in a shamanistic effort to become other (fungus, plant, insect, bird and animal) in order to better become our selves.

As government responses to coronavirus shuts human activity down, the rest of the world thrives. Unmown verges flower and seed, animals move into urban centres, air and water clears, bird and fish populations recover. Each episode suggests a more sustainable way of becoming human, inspired by what it means to be fungus, insect, plant, bird and animal, respectively. Might the incorporation of these other-than human strategies help us better work with rather than against the rest of life on earth and help mitigate climate crisis?

Contributors:

Merlin Sheldrake
Helen Moore            
Sharon Kivland            
angela rawlings
Rhys Trimble
Milena Popov-Nena
Camilla Nelson
Amy Cutler
Stephen Emmerson
Michael Prime
John Cage
A Blade of Grass: Jan Mun

Created by: Camilla Nelson

Commissioned by SoundArt Radio
First aired on Sunday 5th July 2020

http://www.soundartradio.org.uk/tomorrows-transmissions/becoming/
https://www.singingapplepress.com/becoming

Becoming Fungus

Musician based in East London.
On Streaming and Online Stores as:
Jamie Michael McCarthy and CERFILIC.

Website: www.jamiemccarthy.net

(Main profile photo by Andy Cook).

A Crash Course in Cloudspotting - Rester And Audience Loops: 16.01.21 (16'26" - 16' 53")

jamiemccarthy72@gmail.com

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