This special hour travels through the Sound Symposium in St. John’s Newfoundland with the members of the Summer Institute of the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation. The theme for this episode is overcoming aversion to discomfort through group improvising. The Summer Institute brought together scholars and practitioners of all descriptions, not everyone skilled in every variety of improvisation. We pushed our boundaries and came face to face with the normative limits of much performance styles. Hear George Blake and I interviewing the founder of the Symposium, Kathy Clark-Wherry, as well as Memorial University Archivist, Colleen Quigley, who likes to recollect this bi-annual event through the visual imagery of the event posters. The Harbour Symphony and local opinions on it. Anders Eskildsen on Sound Painting, Chris Tonelli and Un-piched Singing, and Jason Cullimore speaking about the evolutionary origins of music as a way of group bonding, articulating why we feel more able to take expressive risks in groups than on our own: these are all patches in this episode’s quilt! This originally aired on CFRU 93.3FM on August 18, 2014.

Sound It Out

Episode #3: Summer Symphony, St. John’s Newfoundland

In the middle of February, Toronto-based artist collective Public Recordings staged a performance of Pauline Oliveros‘ score To Valerie Solanas and Marilyn Monroe in Recognition of their Desperation at Toronto’s City Hall, in the Council Chambers. The performance concluded a week of public rehearsals in various locations around the city. Join us in this episode as we inquire into the process of group decision-making, and how artistic collaboration can illuminate what it means to act together in new formations of community. Sound It Out airs on CFRU in Guelph on Tuesdays at 5pm. New episodes usually appear on a fortnightly basis. Sound It Out is produced and hosted by Rachel Elliott in conjunction with the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation. This episode aired on June 21, 2018.

Episode #83 - The Aesthetics of Transparency: Improvising in Toronto's City Council Chambers

What is the relationship between forms of social life and forms of art? In Social Aesthetics, Professor Georgina Born of Oxford University offers an analysis of the social in music and art using what she calls ‘planes of analysis.’ This is an empirical, ethnographic method of gathering data through observation, a way of finding out, rather than making assumptions about how the social is involved in any particular musical or artistic event. The social is not the only component in what Born calls musical assemblages, but in my conversation with her in this episode, tools for describing this aspect of it are illuminatingly explained. Sound It Out airs on CFRU in Guelph on Tuesdays at 5pm. New episodes usually appear on a fortnightly basis. Sound It Out is produced and hosted by Rachel Elliott in conjunction with the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation. This episode aired on December 18, 2018.

#82: Epistemology Series - The Four Planes of Social Analysis with Georgina Born

We often focus on the what of improvisation without questioning the who (or whom) of the practice. If we think of improvisation as judicious real-time responsiveness to a situation, we might wonder whether the image of the human implicit in that picture needs revision. In this episode, hear Dr. Edgar Landgraf discuss why we should shake off our humanistic hangover and embrace a methodological cybernetic posthumanism. Sound It Out airs on CFRU in Guelph on Tuesdays at 5pm. New episodes usually appear on a fortnightly basis. Sound It Out is produced and hosted by Rachel Elliott in conjunction with the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation. This episode aired on Tuesday November 27, 2018.

Episode #81 - Improvisation as Self-Reflexive Autopoesis Edgar Landgraf on Posthumanism

Its the CFRU Raise Your Voice Funding Drive! Donate!!! You will receive merch and a chance to win fabulous prizes if you give $25 or more. While donating you will be listening to Mano-Dharma by Takehisa Kosugi’s Catch Wave and also Louise Landes Levi with Paul Labrecque and Bart De Paepe playing Colloidal Love. Sound It Out airs on CFRU in Guelph on Tuesdays at 5pm. New episodes usually appear on a fortnightly basis. Sound It Out is produced and hosted by Rachel Elliott in conjunction with the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation. This episode aired on Tuesday November 13, 2018.

Episode #80 - Takehisa Kosugi and Louise Landes Levi

Is the voice like an instrument or is it the other way around? Can the voice communicate as pure sound or is it always entangled with language? How does the gendering of voice shape conventions of performance and composition in Gospel music? Chamber music? Vedic chant? Think through this stuff with #BlackComposer Darius Jones, vocal experimenter Amirtha Kidambi, Canadian singer/songwriter Thanya Iyer, and IISCI’s own Kevin McNeilly of UBC. Sound It Out airs on CFRU in Guelph on Tuesdays at 5pm. New episodes usually appear on a fortnightly basis. Sound It Out is produced and hosted by Rachel Elliott in conjunction with the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation. This episode aired on Tuesday November 5, 2018.

Episode #79 - "The Voice is Supreme"

Canadian jazz experimentalist François Houle attempts to mount Cornelius Cardew’s 193-page series of symbols and images using solo clarinet, myriad electronics, and a series of loopers. In this world premier recorded at the IICSI House in September 2018, Houle presents an improvised dreamscape of sounds – nightmarish at times – reflecting his live-time compositional decision-making and virtuosic experimentation with extended technique. Sound It Out airs on CFRU in Guelph on Tuesdays at 5pm. New episodes usually appear on a fortnightly basis. Sound It Out is produced and hosted by Rachel Elliott in conjunction with the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation. This episode aired on Tuesday October 16, 2018.

Episode #78 - The Mount Everest of Graphic Scores: François Houle on Solo Clarinet

‘In music, silence is more important than sound,’ says Miles Davis. In April 2018, a multi-disciplinary gathering of musicians, dancers, philosophers, and designers convened at the Po River Delta in Italy to listen to the river Po in preparation to perform at the UNESCO International Jazz Day in Padova. Join us in this reflection on silence and its surprises. Sound It Out airs on CFRU in Guelph on Tuesdays at 5pm. New episodes usually appear on a fortnightly basis. Sound It Out is produced and hosted by Rachel Elliott in conjunction with the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation. This episode aired on Tuesday October 2, 2018.

Episode #77 - The Paradox of Silence in the Po River Delta

This short episode of Sound It Out puts improvisation in Flamenco music into the spotlight through a discussion with Fin de Fiesta dancer Lia Grainger. Sound It Out airs on CFRU in Guelph on Tuesdays at 5pm. New episodes usually appear on a fortnightly basis. Sound It Out is produced and hosted by Rachel Elliott in conjunction with the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation. This episode aired on Thursday August 31st, 2017.

Episode #76 - Fin de Fiesta Flamenco

Improvisation can become invisible since it is such a big part of everyday life. In this episode, graduate student Dan DiPiero presents the thesis that social and musical improvisation share a common structure, which is an engagement with contingency. Sound It Out airs on CFRU in Guelph on Tuesdays at 5pm. New episodes usually appear on a fortnightly basis. Sound It Out is produced and hosted by Rachel Elliott in conjunction with the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation. This episode aired on Tuesday May 8th, 2018.

Episode #75 – Epistemology Series – Contingency and Everyday Improvisation

We know that the personal is political, but do we consider the extent to which the political is also personal? In this rich and lively archived conversation between Paul Watkins and queer Black Canadian dub poet d’bi.young anitafrika (August 2013), hear an animated testament to the necessity for multi-directional critique – looking at the ills of society and also at our own selves. This will wake you up. Sound It Out airs on CFRU in Guelph on Tuesdays at 5pm. New episodes usually appear on a fortnightly basis. Sound It Out is produced and hosted by Rachel Elliott in conjunction with the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation. This episode aired on Tuesday April 10th, 2018.

Episode #74 – d’bi.young anitafrika “We Tellin’ Stories Yo” (archive conversation)

In celebration of International Women's Day, this episode of Sound It Out features songs by women from around the world who make music of an experimental sort. While most of the tracks you will hear are soothing and listenable, there are also a few selections that provide an 'ear cleaning' treatment, to use R. Murray Schafer's expression: they may not be pleasant but the unpleasantness is good for you. Artists: Joëlle Léandre, Catherine Jaunaiux, Ikue Mori, Julianna Barwick, Kim Gordon, Jane Rigler, France-Marie Uitti, Susie Ibarra, and Sainkho Namtchylak. The research for this episode is influenced by Dana Reason Myers' doctoral dissertation(2002): The Myth of Absence: Representation, Reception and the Music of Experimental Women Improvisors. Sound It Out airs on CFRU in Guelph on Tuesdays at 5pm. New episodes usually appear on a fortnightly basis. Sound It Out is produced and hosted by Rachel Elliott in conjunction with the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation. This episode aired on March 13th, 2018.

Episode #73 - Mainly Music: Experimental Women

"How does the “idea of north” trope relate to Canadian experimental music today?” In this fascinating talk, Professor Ellen Waterman describes, analyzes, and questions "the symbiotic relationship between public funding and artistic programming and content.” Waterman's engaging and authoritative style is an enormously welcome way of digesting a wealth of historical and contemporary references, audio samples, and insightful interpretation about experimental music practice in Canada, as it pertains to our understanding of ourselves living with this land over time.  Sound It Out airs on CFRU in Guelph on Tuesdays at 5pm. New episodes usually appear on a fortnightly basis. Sound It Out is produced and hosted by Rachel Elliott in conjunction with the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation. This episode aired on February 27th, 2018.

Episode #72 - The Idea of North and Experimental Music in Canada: Ellen Waterman @ MMap

In this mostly music version of Sound It Out, you will stroll with me through time and space, including outer space, and meet some of the most groundbreaking musicians of the 20th Century and beyond. From Eleanor Collins, whose eponymous TV series on CBC predated Nat King Cole by a year to make her the first black TV host in North America, to the Womanist dub poet and Doctor of Philosophy Afua Cooper, Wundagurl, Brampton’s pre-eminent bedroom beat-maker turned Grammy nominee, and Mélissa Laveaux who, singing for the first time in créole, refracts haïtian heritage in Radyo Siwèl. Also: Lillian Allen, Portia White, Michie Mee, Salome Bey and more! Sound It Out airs on CFRU in Guelph on Tuesdays at 5pm. New episodes usually appear on a fortnightly basis. Sound It Out is produced and hosted by Rachel Elliott in conjunction with the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation. This episode aired on February 13th, 2018.

Episode #71 - Mainly Music: Black Women in Canadian Music

How can we know the improvisatory if it only happens one time? In this episode we consider the possibility of knowing a temporal process from the inside, while it is happening. Is it possible to be in the middle of an event unfolding in time and still perform ‘analytical acts’? Or do we need to freeze them and examine them later as if from a bird’s eye perspective? Hear this discussion with music theorist and trombone player Dr. Chris Stover (U of Arizona), who is (fittingly) in the midst developing a two-pronged approach to real-time analysis of improvised music. Also hear a recorded performance by Marshall Trammell (Music Research Strategies) and Kade Twist (Postcommodity), in which they verbally analyze their own music while they make it. Sound It Out airs on CFRU in Guelph on Tuesdays at 5pm. New episodes usually appear on a fortnightly basis. Sound It Out is produced and hosted by Rachel Elliott in conjunction with the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation. This episode aired on January 23, 2018.

Episode #70 - Epistemology Series: Real-Time Analysis

Sound clips, recordings, interviews, and other audio related to the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI).

hubhopper

Sound It Out

hubhopper