Departed Dialogues (2019) Installation by Ida Sophia, Sound composition by Joseph James Francis

Departed Dialogues

In this work, Joseph James Francis explores the architecture of sound and its interplay with place; investigating how traditions inform and influence a society.

Created during an artist residency in Galatina, Italy it is the investigation of the sonic intersection of sacred and pagan heritage and Italian Futurism. Serendipitously coming across a collection of the Futurist manifestos in London on route to Italy in the form of The Art of Noise: Destruction of Music by Futurist Machines, Joseph James Francis used this text as a lens through which to approach, deconstruct and conflagrate traditional sounds found in the Puglia region to produce contemporary noise architectures. This work draws significantly from the Futurists’ obsession with machine music and the desire to abstract sound from its source, dispossessing it from its tradition and meaning. Making recordings on a 464 year old grand pipe organ in the medieval Basilica di Santa Caterina d’Alessandria, he looked to create a dialogue between this traditional instrument and its embodiment of a machine for noise. 

This work is coupled closely with his questioning of the fluidity of tradition when met with the demands, ruptures and beauty of a contemporary social context. Within this investigation he delved deeply into the tradition of La Taranta, a myth associated with the town of Galatina. La Taranta is an orgiastic pagan ritual where victims bitten by a Tarantula would experience physical and mental disturbances akin to hysteria. Those affected could be cured only by dancing to music played on a violin, tambourine, and accordion, as a form of exorcism to expel the devil. This musical tradition continues to this day in the genre of Pizzica. With its relentless, hypnotic rhythm Pizzica marries well with the mechanistic Futurist approach to machine music.

This work was undertaken at Domus Artist Residency, Galatina, Italy in December 2023.

In the Empyrean of the Eternal Harmony

Freedom from the Limitations of Matter

The Angels of Will

A Sphere Where No Dissonances Can Possibly Exist

Shadows and Tender Frailties is an exploration into the liminal space between noise and music, a space where Joseph James Francis often resides.

Assembled from a series of improvisations recorded at MESS (Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio) in early 2023, these recordings made on a variety of modular synthesisers were then assembled during an artist residency at IATRUS in the ancient town of Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria. Using a variation of the musique concrète technique which involves assembling recorded sounds as raw material, Joseph invites play, possibility, and randomness. With this free approach comes pleasant surprises and curiosities, giving the work a distinctive gridless feel.

Joseph’s sonic aesthetic takes inspiration from the abstract and austere sensibilities of the Constructivist art movement, who aimed to reflect modern industrial society in their works. Just as the Constructivists rejected decorative stylisation in favour of the industrial assemblage of materials, Joseph strives to move beyond traditional musical constructs such as melody and harmony by using the assemblage approach.

In developing the works, Joseph imposed the limitation of only using recordings from a single session and then overlaying field recordings over that assemblage. As such, each track has a signature sound deriving from the modular system he collaborated with on that day of recording. The field recordings used were collected in Bulgaria, Istanbul, Turkey, and during his residency in Gallatina, Italy.

It was during the DOMUS artist in residence program in Gallatina that Joseph made recordings on a 464-year-old grand pipe organ in the mediaeval Basilica di Santa Caterina d’Alessandria. Here he sought to create a dialogue between this traditional instrument and its embodiment as a machine for noise, a recording of which is used on the title track Shadows and Tender Frailties. It was during this residency that he explored the Italian Futurists’ obsession with machine music and their desire to abstract sound from its source, dispossessing it from tradition and meaning — a concept that continues to permeate into his current work and investigations.

The title Shadows and Tender Frailties refers to the profound and often hidden parts of us that lie dormant. These shadows, often reflecting the fears and doubts that we carry, are the obscure parts of our nature that we seldom reveal. Our tender frailties refer to the delicate and sensitive weaknesses inherent in our humanity. Though we often perceive ourselves as invincible, we are, in truth, remarkably vulnerable and fragile.

Joseph James Francis is a Berlin-based sound artist, composer, and visual artist.

The Liberation of Noise

Drawing Nearer to Infinitude

Moulding Water into Geometric Forms

White Breathing of a Nocturnal City

Shadows and Tender Frailties

Chromatic Drama

Joseph James Francis is a Berlin-based sound artist, composer, and visual artist. Embracing the atonal and percussion-less, he creates a unique blend of ambient music and musique concrète. His process invites play, possibility, and randomness, giving his work a distinctive, gridless feel.

josephjamesfrancis

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