Acoustic Ruminations

What happens when we inhabit a feeling of being present together? In Acoustic Ruminations, we invite our audience to abandon the formalities of audience-dom and simply embrace a sense of being. No clapping, no obligation to sit still, you can drift off, fall asleep, or if you like, meditate. Leave the rest of the world behind for the next 45 minutes and let us bathe you in sound.

We’ve chosen our programme, which comprises both composed and improvised music, based around the concept of ‘sonic meditation’, which Pauline Oliveros coined in the late ‘60s and ‘70s. In response to a context of ‘political despair’ of the time, Oliveros published a series of Sonic Meditations for ‘humanitarian purposes: specifically healing’. Unsurprisingly, this resonates strongly with us, as we work during another period of despair; as a group we’ve found deep listening and meditating together to be an integral part of our creative practice. We’ve incorporated three of Oliveros’ Meditations into the programme. We hope you will join in with us in the first - ‘The Greeting’ - as you enter the space. Meditation VIII, ‘Environmental Dialogue’, is second to last in the programme, and we invite you to join in with this as well (instructions provided on back page).

Several of the pieces explore spiritual themes. The Santos tells the Old Testament story of the childless Hannah, who prayed for a son. We've included two excerpts from the work of Hildegard von Bingen, a Benedictine nun, composer, philosopher and visionary of the high middle ages. Further inspired by Hildegard is the 1994 piece by Sofia Gubaidulina, which speaks to Hildegard's connection to God, and the visions in which God has revealed to her that which is ‘invisible and eternal’.

Perhaps the most unusual piece in the programme is Cassandra Miller’s Rounding. For this piece you will notice that we are responding to pre-recorded sound played through headphones. Miller asks the performers to create a series of solo and group recordings, in which we respond first to a pre-existing recording, and subsequently to our own recordings, while completing a body scan meditation. For the better part of a year now, we have been coming together to record as a group, and on our own as individuals, each time letting the material slip further and further away from its source.

To round off the programme, and the theme, we’ll end with Heal You, a 2010 piece by Anna Meredith which we hope will provide a soothing balm for the ears and heart before we all depart back into the wider world.

Programme

Hannah

Sorana Santos

My Love is Mine

Jonathan Dove

Eeyore Week

Improvised

Sonic Mediation VII (Removing the Demon or getting your Rocks Off)

Pauline Oliveros

Rounding

Cassandra Miller

Columba aspexit

Hildegard von Bingen

Aus den Visionen der Hildegard von Bingen

Sofia Gubaidulina

Kind regards, Hildegard

Improvised

O virtus sapientiae

Hildegard von Bingen

Sonic Meditation VIII (Environmental Dialogue)

Pauline Oliveros

Heal You

Anna Meredith