credit:

credit: Susannah Kelly

credit: Sonic Vigil

"Agentia" (for six musicians and tape)

Performance

St. Anne’s Church in Shandon, Cork. 24 November 2012.

Description

“Agentia” was commissioned by the Quiet Music Ensemble. The piece has no score as such, but instead presents the musicians with a series of field recordings that document various natural and built environments. The performers improvise within these sonic environments, adopting strategies common to biotic and abiotic agents within an ecosystem: signalling, camouflage, mimicry, adaptation, and augmentation. The aim is to create a shifting milieu of interacting agents that will illustrate certain dependencies in our audio milieu.

The Quiet Music Ensemble is Dan Bodwell (double bass), Ilse De Ziah (cello), John Godfrey (electric guitar), Sean Mac Erlaine (clarinet), Roddy O’Keeffe (trombone). On this occasion I performed with the group, using an EMS Synthi AKS emulation.

The venue was the lovely St. Anne’s Church, home of the famous Shandon Bells.

The event was Sonic Vigil 7, six hours of music and sound experimentation, presented by the Guesthouse and curated by Mick O’Shea and Danny McCarthy. Other guests include Karen Power, Paul Hegarty, Tony Langlois, Harry Moore, and Katie O’Looney… a cornucopia of Ireland’s finest.

Thanks

Thanks to John Godfrey and The Quiet Music Ensemble for an incredible experience.