Wendy Reid, LULU AND FRIENDS: AMBIENT BIRD 433 for African Grey Parrot and 3 Open Ensembles
Ambient Bird 433 is an hour-long interspecies sonic landscape/ambient environment which reflects a philosophy of connecting with all living creatures and the environment. The ensembles include experimental musicians of various and combined approaches: traditional, improvisational, acoustic/electronic /ambient, human/non-human, working with silence.
ENSEMBLES:
Bird Ensemble (#1): Lulu, African Grey Parrot;
Wendy Reid, violin; Brenda Hutchinson, long tube instrument;
Aurora Josephson, voice;
Ron Heglin, tuba
Mills Contemporary Performance Ensemble (#2): Rodrigo Barriga, electric bass; Petur Eggertsson, violin; Tony Gennaro, percussion;
Eric Glick Rieman, melodica; Lee Hodel, double bass; Jake Parker Scott, saxophone; Matthew Robidoux, electric guitar; Mitch Stahlmann, flute; Jess Tambellini, trumpet; Maia Ziaee, voice
FROG POND 433 Ensemble (#3):
Kattt Atchley, voice, laptop; Kenneth Atchley, laptop;
Nancy Beckman, shakuhachi;
Tom Bickley, recorder, electronics;
John Bischoff, laptop; Krys Bobrowski, glissglass;
Barbara Golden, suir, suling; Silvia Matheus, bird whistles;
Maggi Payne, flute, bird whistle;
Tim Perkis, laptop; Brian Reinbolt, tweet-boxes
The structure of this work can be described as a a ‘bird chaconne’ created from sonic fragments of the bird Lulu and transcribed into a spatially notated score to be interpreted and performed by the musicians . The transcriptions are not of ordinary bird songs, but creations of a ‘bird composer’ inventing sounds from environmental influences.
The ensembles create ‘continuous variations’ over a 4'33" bird ostinato through orchestration, improvisation, interpretation of the spatial score, interaction with birds - a gradual development, eventually returning to the source. With a separation in space of the sonic elements and their timely silences, an interplay among the bird fragments, human performers and urban sounds have relationships seemingly anarchic at times, yet ultimately inter-connected.
As a part of Reid’s TREE PIECES, an on-going set of musical processes which attempt to reflect nature’s manner of operations, AMBIENT BIRD 433 is contextual in nature, allowing performers to act according to unpredictable conditions and variables which arise within the musical continuity. In performance, an attempt is made at a spontaneous unforced growing of sound and silence in which emphasis is placed on formation rather than pre-established form, as in the building and shaping of cell-like units in living processes. (treepieces.net)
*The title pays homage to John Cage’s composition 4’33”
https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/entertainment/oakland-composer-birds-make-beautiful-music-together
Cost: $10