Cricket, Tree, Crow
4-channel sound (19:00), 2012
Cricket, Tree, Crow is a quadraphonic sound piece in three movements that investigates the voices of the cricket, the crow, and the maple tree. All sonic material in the work is based on vocal mimicry of the sounds produced by members of the species themselves.
The piece is driven by the desire to explore the boundaries between human and nonhuman subjectivites. In trying to mimic sounds that are not natural to the human vocal apparatus, I am interested in the friction, or encounter, between non-human voices and my own. By studying recordings of crickets, crows and maple trees — in slowing them down, parsing their frequencies, and matching my voice to theirs as closely as I can — I hope to open myself to their respective worlds.
Cricket, Tree, Crow is based on sonic research conducted at Studio XX media arts center in Montréal during a two-month residency in early 2012.
In 2013, Cricket, Tree, Crow was published as a 4.1 audio DVD by Audience Editions, with a critical text by David Dunn.