07 April 2011
'Sensory trip trip.'Buenos Aires. Day off.
Back in 2002 I designed a show with the Kronos Quartet called Sun Rings, which they still perform from time to time. It is an evening-length piece composed for them by Terry Riley. For a long time Kronos have often performed works incorporating all manner of audio samples and other technology, making them pretty much the Radiohead of the ‘classical’ world. Sun Rings is based around plasma wave radiation (just go with this), collected from spacecraft on homemade recording devices built by Dr. Donald Gurnett at the University of Iowa. This radiation produces, in effect, sounds from space, which is what Terry composed around to create the piece. I built the visual environment and the whole thing is a bit of an epic, certainly in the context of the chamber music world. Sun Rings continues to be performed periodically and this morning I was proud to receive the following review from its most recent outing in Taiwan. Translation (one assumes) by Google:Kronos Quartet 'Sun Wheel'Earth and space as the universe secret language music industry's breathing, hear the sound of the earth's heartbeat. The most beautiful sound in space, showing fantasy 'dream sound scene'. Riding into space penetrating the music world, start a new universe of sensory trip trip. 'Sun wheel' (Sun Rings) originated in 2000. NASA, Kronos commissioned to develop into a complete space sound of music, the sound is set up by NASA and the space in Earth orbit plasma wave receivers on board collected. Kronos musicians invited to minimalist Terry Riley composing, popular day group U2 stage designer Willie Williams served as visual design, completed in 2002. This all in about 90 minutes, highly praised by the international music scene.String Quartet symbolize the Voyager and Galileo spacecraft, sailing through the solar system, this journey will take us to the unknown universe, the stars shine through the entire universe and our small and precious home - Earth, from the small vastness of understanding the people, and then cherish all life.Image Design Willy Williams uses the NASA collection of many documents created as a design starting point, as a basis for emotional music. Video works are mostly abstract images, and the concept of space as the main video image composition, add 70 space ship back to Earth's dynamic picture. The picture is different from that in the science fiction movie scene, faithful to the original data, a very emotional appeal and power to shock. Kronos Quartet to challenge, the constant pursuit of trying different types of cross-border cooperation to break the stereotype that the form of chamber music.With this program due to performance demands, some seats have restricted view. If inconvenience, sorry.'