Ecosonic Performance.Ouija Board , Baroque Flutes and Cellos

May 2008, City University Electroacoustic Concert Series.

Peter Coyte, Kirsten Edwards - Ouija Board
Amara Guitry, Stephen Preston - Baroque Flutes
Laura Reid, Thomas Gardner - Cellos

The Ouija Board - a new form of group musical instrument. Based on the real-time video analysis of the shadows of a group of people, it reframes many of the conventions of traditional tactile instrumental control. It allows the relationship between sound material from loudspeakers and the embodied act of performance to be investigated more deeply. This occurs both in a formal research process and during performance, where the Ouija board acts as a bridge between acousmatic and traditional instrumental / vocal techniques.

The tactile quality of traditional acoustic instruments is in contrast to this remote, shadowy form of engagement. It is a negative instrument, between two worlds, casting a human shadow on the acousmatic curtain.

Ecosonics is designed to explore the almost biological aspects of primitive music making, based on the notion of music as sonic communication. Ecosonic improvisations involve relationships between sound, movement and emotion. The performers draw on the intense expressivity that lies at the heart of emotional vocal utterance. Improvisations are shaped in practice as conversations made from sonic gestures between players. The immediacy of the body defines player-instrument relationship and methods of sound production, while minimizing cognitive mediation of culturally acquired musical imperatives