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Artist Fri Oct 11 2013
Erase the Word...and the Song: Ben Vida at Lampo
Former Chicagoan (now ensconced in Brooklyn) Ben Vida presents several works of sound poetry, abstract electronics, and atmomized speech particles as part of Lampo's Fall 2013 series. The event is free (with RSVP), and takes place at the Graham Foundation's Madlener House, 4 W. Burton Pl., this Saturday, Oct. 12 at 8pm.
Vida presents several works as part of the program. In "Tztztztzt Î Í Í...", several performers (including Tyondai Braxton, Sara Magenheimer and Vida himself) were filmed performing a sound-poem by Vida, accompanied by synthesized approximations of their vocalizations, thus dislocating sound from action in peculiar ways. As Vida writes, "This attention to shifting relationships of inputs and outputs, cause and effect, was created with the intention of recalibrating the viewer's awareness of their own senses. The possibility of a recalibration and the desire to remind the viewer of how well they are able to receive and decode discordant information acts to reveal the brain's ability to create order out of multi-sensory distortions." Loosely translated, this means "take a deep breath and count back from 10, ace -- you can figure this out without mommy."
Also on the program is "Damaged Particulates," a piece composed for four-channel stereo with "fixed and live electronics" (pre-records and johnny-on-the-spot, friend) with an emphasis on single and dual deployments of stark sounds in fascinating contrast to one another. The use of such naked, visceral sonic artifacts prevents the ease of simply drifting along in the sonic stream, with layers rising and falling in the morass, in favor of discrete events that pop up out of nowhere, announce themselves, and then pop out of existence again -- sometimes one at a time, sometimes two in opposition, and occasionally a chorus of four just to keep you off your guard.
This is the second concert in Lampo's Fall series. Future events will include electronic composer Mark Fell (Nov. 2), percussionist Eli Keszler (Nov. 16) and former Emeralds synth guy Steve Hauschildt (Dec. 7).