Summary
Our second “Deep Listening in Central Florida” meeting!
Ten receptive first-timers came to this meeting! Lots of laughter as expected from intelligent people taking risks: very few knew each other at the beginning. Who were they? One gentleman was very familiar with Deep Listening and drove across the state to attend. Another, a well-known studio owner and producer from Gainesville also made the journey. A classical musician, a young mom, and an event producer also joined us. Not everyone was a musician: onee is an executive sports business professional who never played an instrument.
One unique aspect of this meeting was that there were no instruments! Only voices.
Please spread the word and let people know that a Deep Listening group is forming in Orlando. This is for everyone – a safe place to explore. There are no mistakes in DL, just sounds to hear!
Angels and Demons, the first track here, was the most of the group’s first sounding in a Deep Listening sonic meditation. One can hear how timid they begin, and are more comfortable as the piece develops.
We sounded Entwining standing on stage with our eyes closed and hands reaching out in front of us. Listening to the recording, you can hear our footsteps as we wander blindly around. And except for a few that must not have understood the directions (or maybe they just chose to do something different), we ended up on the same note class.
All in all, we performed four sonic meditations, each very different. These were, I felt, the best two.
ANGELS AND DEMONS
(Pauline Oliveros 1980)
Angels represent the collective guardian spirits of this meditation.
Demons represent the individual spirits of creative genius.
Angels make steady, even, breath-long tones which blend as perfectly as possible with the steady, even, breath-long tones made by other Angels.
Demons listen inwardly until sounds are heard from they own inner spirits.
Any sound that has been heard inwardly first may be made.
During the course of this meditation, Angels may become Demons and Demons may become Angels.
Begin by just listening for a few minutes until the spirits move.
ENTWINING
(Martine Thomas)
close your eyes-hum
a note that is different
from any other hum in
the room-walk around
the room with yourhands
outstretched-when you
encounter another hand
holdout-stop walking &
stand close together-hom
the same note as the person now
holding your hand-continue
until everyone holds a hand
in each hand-when only the
ends of the chain are humming
they should get on the move to find one another-
RECORDINGS
The wonderful ACS house system of Timucua was cranked up to simulate a very large reflective space. Such an acoustic environment transforms every sound into something sonorous, heard in a new way.
The recording was made with an ambisonic recording kit using a SoundField SPS200 in the middle of the room. Unfortunately channels 3 and 4 did not record. The result was that my voice’s level was too strong, as I was front and center in those channels. Others were spread around the room, around the mic for a surround experience – that did not happen. To combat the differences in level, I compressed the signal. This made all of the other voices come up to more equal my level. However, the background levels of reverb are less stable, riding with the level changes.
