Bog Songs Extract KPower LUXNM Live

Sonic Cradle (2015) commissioned by DeutschlandRadio for Ultraschall Festival - 1 1/2 extract from 12 minute work.
The composed part of sonic cradle is based entirely on field recordings captured during a residency in The Arctic. I spent 3 weeks recording above, inside and deep below the Arctic ice. The aural score/ stereo playback part is composed entirely of these field recordings and attempts to merge this extraordinary places quiet, vast and isolated exterior with its explosive and sonically rich underworld. The materials and structural layout focus on the huge sonic spectrum of ice/water and its ever-evolving shapes, contours and layers. Water in all its forms, its hypnotic flow and instantaneous speed changes and jolts, are interpreted here. The pacing and flow of this work is informed by my memory of a brief but intense time spent in this place. My memory of the way things moved, the rapid changes, the light, the ‘loaded’ silence and the endlessness. The performer is asked to prepare for this work by; reading some text, watching a reflective documentary made by the composer, looking at photographs (which the audience will see) and of course listening to the aural score and directed notes. All preparation aims to ‘set-the-scene’ so that when the sound enters it is already loaded with context.

Sonic Cradle (2015) Extract by K.Power, performed by B.Luneburg

In 1927, Cork City Gaol hosted one of Ireland’s earliest radio broadcasts, the simple sound of cartwheels on cobbles. RTÉ lyric fm has commissioned is this on?, a new work for radio from renowned Irish composer Karen Power to mark the place of that first broadcast and to pay tribute to the profoundly significant contributions by women to Ireland’s turbulent history in the early twentieth century. It will be performed by Karen in concert along with works by Yoko Ono, John Godfrey and Cat Lamb played by the Quiet Music Ensemble, and broadcast live from 8pm on Nova with Bernard Clarke on RTÉ lyric fm.

is this on? combines; field recordings recorded by Karen from all over the world, RTÉ Lyric fm archival materials + inaudible sounds from Cork City Gaol itself. 

We together will move between real and imaginary worlds, times and spaces. We are here in this beautiful space, which creates 1 unique listening environment. Radio audiences are in a variety of other spaces surrounded by other contexts - whether they be passing traffic in a car, the kettle boiling in the kitchen. This piece is designed to trigger sonic connections with these known and unknown spaces. To allow you time to dream in and through sound. To bring you on a journey through Irelands past voices and times. To connect you to each other and at the same time highlight our individuality in the way you receive sound. Each of our listening experiences are largely governed by our unique context, or memory of a place, a time, a sound and these unconsciously direct our hearing of everything. All I am doing as the composer of this piece is choosing to highlight specific sounds that surround us all of the time and that have some connection with our history as Irish people. i hope that through these decisions you can embark on 1 of many potential sonic trips. The music is designed to 1st root us in this stunning gaol space and then gradually move away into a realm of real but reimagined spaces. Every so often I remind you of where you started from, but even this grounding changes based on where else we’ve been. 
I ask that you consider this space, consider the mode of radio and its unique ability to reach out and connect us. I ask you to really listen. 

Is This On? by Karen Power (Opening Extract from 40 minute radio work)

This is an extract from life flow (2015) a live performance piece in response to a large-scale celebration exhibition of Terry Fox's life + work @ ADK, Berlin. It was composed especially for this event and performed in a tiny office space @ ADK, Berlin. It is a quadraphonic work lasting approx 1 hour. You are hearing a stereo mp3 extract here.
life flow offers time and space for us to hear everyday or ordinary sounds differently.
Terry Fox viewed and was present in the world in a unique way. This brief sonic performance reflects on some of the ordinary experiences that he might have noticed and heard as something extraordinary. 

Life Flow For Terry Fox Extract by Karen Power

sonic pollinators aims to capture, represent and juxtapose the real and imagined, or reimagined, place, time and uniqueness of Offaly and its pollinators through music/sound. Over the next 7 weeks this pollinators project will come to its completion, after months of listening and recording natural and maned pollinators throughout Offaly. Natural settings include: Clara Bog, Lough Boora Discovery Park + Birr Castle Garden’s. Managed settings were accessed in collaboration with Offaly Beekeeping Association.

As a versatile, enthusiastic and well-received Irish composer. Karen Power seeks to stimulate, engage and interact with audiences. Her work utilizes two primary sources; acoustic instruments and everyday sounds, spaces and soundscapes.

The root concept of this project was to spend time visiting both the natural and humanly created pollinator environments. I made multiple visits to listen and make full frequency recordings of bees, plants and their surrounding habitats. Every place has its own character and sense of time, this for me is palpable, most especially in more isolated, less human spaces. Listen to any of these spaces where nature and surroundings simply coexist. They are in sync and everything within that space has a purpose - natural chaos - you hear patterns evolve and dissolve and you hear a new kind of ‘harmony’. The sounds of any place also unveil its past, its present, its unique circumstances and the effects of mankind.  
Everyday sound (soundscape) plays an essential part in my music. Manipulation of its ability to evoke associations is key: specifically, I explore the 'edges' of recognition, where just enough remains of a found sound that it simultaneously appears familiar and new. I am interested in how each of us carries individual, conscious or unconscious, associations with these sounds - particularly if we have been to the places from where they are extracted - and these associations inform our listening experience and blurs the distinction between real and imagined memory.
Performing at the centre of this large-scale composition is Ireland’s Quiet Music Ensemble, who will employ their unique skills as improvisors, listeners + interpreters as they shift between notated, graphic and aural materials to create musical dialogues that shift between music and nature.

Sonic Pollinators Snippet by Karen Power

This is an extract that combines 5 different locations throughout my home during Ophelia Hurricane, Oct. 16th, 2017.
All recordings were made with contact microphones.

Ophelia Ireland From Inside Kpower

Every place has its own character and sense of time. This, for composer Karen Power, is most especially palpable in more isolated or unheard places like the Amazon Rainforest.
This piece, which is based entirely on field recordings made by the composer in the Amazon Rainforest in July 2016, explores the possibilities of hearing and approaching the natural structures and harmonies of our world as an integral part of our own existence. It highlights how, when listened to, these connect us and perhaps offer us a more natural way of being. In a musical sense, sounds like the amazon... aims to bring the natural world and it’s natural sense of time, harmony and structure, to bare on our constructed spaces, performers, audiences and the musical material itself. Bringing the audience on a unique journey, beginning deep in the Amazon, but who can say where it will end up?
(Extract from 14 channel performance @ Cork MidSummer Festival, 2017)

Sounds Like The Amazon KPower Extract

This work is for Bass Clarinet and Tape. This is a short mp3 quality extract. Performer: Deirdre O' Leary

an alsation ate my dog (2005) -  d o leary 2 minutes into 8'21'' work mp3 quality

Listen to the connections between totally unrelated events, you are hearing birds, wing sounds, snow fall, bird seed, wind and some other bits and pieces in the background

Birds Feeding In Snow Shower Storm Emma KPower

This is a snippet of a much longer field recording made while in Toronto, Canada on May 2nd, 2012. It was recorded at 192Khz, 48Bit.
For more like this go to www.karenpower.ie 

Thunder storm in Toronto field recording by kpower

no man’s land (2020) is a multifunctional composition presented as both an 8-channel sound installation and a live performance for voice and composed field recordings, all of which lies in conversation with the major surrounding artworks of The Sea Around Us Exhibition.

This entire composition is based on my (Karen’s) field recordings of the sea from many locations, including new site-specific recordings made throughout Sligo's waterways over the 6 month period of this project. Subtle additions will be made to the installation throughout its 3month run, mapping local and seasonal sea changes.

The entire concept and structure of this sound installation emulates the living and ever-changing state of our ocean, as simultaneously constant/fleeting, fragile/robust, volatile/calm, mesmerising, beautiful, alluring, harsh and encompassing life and death. 

www.karenpower.ie

No Mans Land (2020) KPower 10 Min Stereo Extract only of 40'00'' 8 channel Sound Installation

This is a 5 minute extract from a 25 minute live premier of the piece commissioned and performed @ The Model, Feb. 29th, 2020. 

Michelle O' Rourke (voice)
Sea (quadraphonic tape)
Karen Power (live processing)

no man’s land (2020) is a multifunctional composition presented as both an 8-channel sound installation and a live performance for voice and composed field recordings, all of which lies in conversation with the major surrounding artworks of The Sea Around Us Exhibition @ The Model, Sligo. (It also functions as two independent pieces.)

This entire composition is based on my (Karen’s) field recordings of the sea from many locations, including new site-specific recordings made throughout Sligo's waterways over the 6 month period of this project. Subtle additions will be made to the installation throughout its 3month run, mapping local and seasonal sea changes.
The entire concept and structure of this multifaceted work emulates the living and ever-changing state of our ocean, as simultaneously constant/fleeting, fragile/robust, volatile/calm, mesmerising, beautiful, alluring, harsh and encompassing life and death.
The pairing of voice with sea continues my line of enquiry related to the basic function of language, as used by all species, as a communicative tool, which considers more the gesture, contour, tone, projection and inflection as core elements of the act. This was our language, but perhaps today we have adapted a more reductive approach to communication and are perhaps missing the point? no man’s land places the voice in the centre of the sea and searches for connection between superficially unconnected beings. The language that emerges between sea and voice lets us all hear both in a new way, while potentially altering our future relationship with the sea around us.

No Man's Land (2020)by Karen Power - 5 minute extract from Premier with Michelle O' Rourke

I am an Irish composer, sound artist and improviser based in Cork, Ireland. My work employs two primary sources; acoustic instruments and everyday sound-objects/environmental soundscapes. I hear and work with these two sources both separately and collectively, with each musical concept dictating the medium employed.  My creative output is diverse, both in its approach and delivery, seeking to capture and translate the essence of an idea through a variety of forms, media and methods of dissemination. For example, recent compositions have been presented as orchestral works, sound installations, string quartets, wordless opera, collaborations between sound and dance, sound and image, free + guided improvisations, solo instrumental works, duets and musical happenings.

Every day environments and how we hear every day sounds lies at the core of my practice, with a continued interest in blurring the distinction between what we consider ‘music’ and all other sound. I have listened and recorded in some of the worlds most isolated and challenging locations: The Arctic, Amazon, Namib Desert and Outback Australia and have found inspiration in the natural world when allowed to unfold. My compositions utilise our inherent familiarity with such sounds as a means of engaging with musicians and audiences. Many of my works are devised to ensure that an active listening environment is created and shared between all during any performance. Resulting works simultaneously challenge every listeners memory of hearing while presenting new contexts for such sounds. I see my work as a continual learning experiment with each new work simultaneously absorbing something from its predecessor and breaking new ground for what is yet to come.
​
Developing in parallel with composition is my practice as an improviser and educator. As an improviser I specialise in using environmental/everyday sounds/place as catalysts for constructing new sound-worlds. Such improvisations - whether solo or ensemble - offer unique interactions related to time, sonic sculpting and gesture. My educational work outside of Tertiary Education focuses on early years and my development of Natural Creators Program, which aims to harness and shape the natural curiosity of our youngest ears.

karenpower

Popular tracks