Breathing PwRHm by Tina Pearson is a new development of a work commissioned by the Deep Listening® Foundation. An electronic work for live performance, it explores two facets of multi-user 3D environments: presence and intimacy between visceral, virtual and telepathic worlds; and the electric hum – the voice of the power grids that make it possible for us to connect in this way. Sonically, it explores the relationship of the Alternating Current (AC) of the North American (60 Hz) and European/Asian (50 Hz) electric systems through two sets of sine tones representing the harmonic series of the two ACs. The result is a slowed down world of just-intonation harmonies, beat frequencies, and microtone textures as the two systems meet inside a natural minor third. In performance, the remotely located performers’ individual breath rhythms determine the timing and pacing of tones they each play; the Europeans’ cue is their exhale, the North Americans’ cue is their inhale. Enhancing the breath theme, the lower sine tones have a duration approximating a slow human breath cycle. This breath-centred performance practice simultaneously focuses and extends the players’ attention while providing temporal structure and pacing for the piece. Globes held by the avatars are 'receivers' that emit differently coloured particles according to their particular AC instrument, and the pitch and volume of the specific sounds they each play in real time. Avatar animations, choreography, real time conducting, and the telematic symbiosis of the globally dispersed players create a kind of surreal entrainment inside the wired worlds that power our connectivity, and point to its precariousness - the electronic sounds pass through the ethernet with periodic glitches, computer malfunctions, latency and other technical and serendipitous factors that make the performance of the piece unpredictable.

Recorded from a performance broadcast simultaneously with Digital Shift (Independent Media Arts Alliance), Digital Arts Resource Centre (Ottawa), MediaNet (Victoria) and Manifestations 2020, Eindhoven, Netherlands, October 2020.
Video and audio recording by Dan Dan Kaunisviita and Jason Sonier.
Audio edits by Tina Pearson.

Performed by 

Miulew Takahe / Björn Eriksson, Sollefteå, Sweden

JORI Tokyo / Johannes Riedmann, Regensburg, Germany

Maxxo Klaar / Max D. Well, Regensburg, Germany

Paco Mariani / Chris Wittkowsky, Regensburg, Germany

Gumnosophistai / Leif Inge, Oslo, Norway

Cuirec d'Erc / Harald Muenz, Cologne, Germany

Frieda Korda / Frieda Kuterna, Antwerpen, Belgium

FredMadison / Gema FB Martín, Madrid, Spain

Zonzo Spyker / Viv Corringham, New York, USA/ London, UK

North Zipper / Norman Lowrey, Kingston, NY, USA

Humming Pera / Tina M. Pearson, Victoria, BC, Canada

https://tina-pearson.com/
https://lasammusic.wordpress.com/

Tina Pearson - Breathing PwRHm

Track 1 of the Music For Natural History Expansions EP by Tina Pearson and Paul Walde.

Music for Natural History is a multi-media installation and live sound performance work that literally gives voice to the taxidermized birds and mammals, artificial trees and painted landscapes that form the dioramas of the Natural History Gallery at the Royal BC Museum in Victoria BC. The performers on these recordings use acoustic instruments and voices to attempt an accurate replication of the sounds of each creature represented in the dioramas. Non-traditional uses of instruments and extended techniques are essential in the realization of the score. The composition also includes vocal notations for sounds of the specific vegetation, waters and winds associated with the microclimates represented, and interactive elements based on the communicative behaviours of the birds and mammals. There are no pre-recorded or electronic sounds in the live performances of these works. Music for Natural History was first presented to the public in April 2012. 

This EP is a collection of shorter compositions derived from the longer works that make up Music for Natural History and provide an opportunity for further exploration of these sounds

Compositions and Concept: Tina Pearson and Paul Walde 
Production: Tina Pearson and Paul Walde 
EP Post-production, recomposition, and mixing by Tina Pearson 2021

Performers: John G Boehme (voice), Geraldine Bulosan (voice, recorder), Arlene Carson (accordion, water whistle, voice), Ajtony Csaba (cello), Tancha Dirickson (recorder, antlers), Nathan Friedman (clarinets), Alisa Gordaneer (voice), Joanna Hood (viola), Claire le Nobel (percussion), Julio Lopezhiler (violin), Tina Pearson (flute, recorders, voice), Janet Sit (recorders, percussion, voice), Chris Tooley (voice, whistles, recorders), George Tzanetakis (clarinets, sax, flutes), Rachael Wadham (percussion), Paul Walde (percussion, recorders, voice) 

Recordings: Kirk McNally 
Additional Recordings: Tina Pearson and Paul Walde 
Additional Post-production: George Tzanetakis 
Visuals: Paul Walde 
Photography: Production stills from the audio video installation Music for Natural History by Tina Pearson and Paul Walde 
Camera: Daniel Carruthers 

These recordings were made at the Phillip T. Young Performance Hall at the University of Victoria in 2016 

This release was made possible through the assistance of the Digital Originals program of the Canada Council for the Arts 

These recordings were made possible through the assistance of the Music Section of the Canada Council for the Arts 

© Tina Pearson and Paul Walde 2012, 2016, 2021

Sandpipers On The Beach With Distant Gulls

Music for Natural History is a multi-media installation and live sound performance work that literally gives voice to the taxidermized birds and mammals, artificial trees and painted landscapes that form the dioramas of the Natural History Gallery at the Royal BC Museum in Victoria BC. The performers on these recordings use acoustic instruments and voices to attempt an accurate replication of the sounds of each creature represented in the dioramas. Non-traditional uses of instruments and extended techniques are essential in the realization of the score. The composition also includes vocal notations for sounds of the specific vegetation, waters and winds associated with the microclimates represented, and interactive elements based on the communicative behaviours of the birds and mammals. There are no pre-recorded or electronic sounds in the live performances of these works. Music for Natural History was first presented to the public in April 2012. 

This EP is a collection of shorter compositions derived from the longer works that make up Music for Natural History and provide an opportunity for further exploration of these sounds

Compositions and Concept: Tina Pearson and Paul Walde 
Production: Tina Pearson and Paul Walde 
EP Post-production, recomposition, and mixing by Tina Pearson 2021

Performers: John G Boehme (voice), Geraldine Bulosan (voice, recorder), Arlene Carson (accordion, water whistle, voice), Ajtony Csaba (cello), Tancha Dirickson (recorder, antlers), Nathan Friedman (clarinets), Alisa Gordaneer (voice), Joanna Hood (viola), Claire le Nobel (percussion), Julio Lopezhiler (violin), Tina Pearson (flute, recorders, voice), Janet Sit (recorders, percussion, voice), Chris Tooley (voice, whistles, recorders), George Tzanetakis (clarinets, sax, flutes), Rachael Wadham (percussion), Paul Walde (percussion, recorders, voice) 

Recordings: Kirk McNally 
Additional Recordings: Tina Pearson and Paul Walde 
Additional Post-production: George Tzanetakis 
Visuals: Paul Walde 
Photography: Production stills from the audio video installation Music for Natural History by Tina Pearson and Paul Walde 
Camera: Daniel Carruthers 

These recordings were made at the Phillip T. Young Performance Hall at the University of Victoria in 2016 

This release was made possible through the assistance of the Digital Originals program of the Canada Council for the Arts 

These recordings were made possible through the assistance of the Music Section of the Canada Council for the Arts 

© Tina Pearson and Paul Walde 2012, 2016, 2021

Pacific Wrens and Western Screech Owls By a Stream At Dusk

The wind, a raven, falling leaves, a flute and a Zoom H4N. 

Wind, Raven, Flute (Red Gut Bay)

Excerpt from audio tests for the installation "This Is For You ohrenhoch Berlin". The audio is designed for stereo or multiple speakers playing a set of sine tones blended to create shifting beating frequencies - the shimmering effect that occurs when two or more tones of close frequency are sounded together. The tones in this sample are tuned to frequencies near or above the typical upper threshold of human perception . Not typically perceived singularly, these frequencies will produce lower beating frequencies that fall within human audio perception range when combined.

High Prime Sines Fluttering (ohrenExcerpt)

Music for Natural History is a project of Tina Pearson and Paul Walde. It is a sonic response to the Natural History Gallery within the Royal BC Museum. Two sections of the work, Elk Concerto and Shoreline Operetta, are scored as live performances for a large mixed ensemble of instrumentalists located within the gallery's Forest and Shoreline dioramas. Two additional movements are constructed audio playback pieces for installation in the Mammoth and Fraser Delta dioramas.

Sandpipers On The Beach With Distant Gulls

Music For Natural History

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