Auckland Lava Cave Experimental Show 'Speleo-Sonics' Announced + Interview

Tireless facilitators of outward sounds the Audio Foundation have announced SPELEO-SONICS, an afternoon of sonic spelunking in the mysterious environs of an Auckland lava cave, featuring distinguished experimental artists Rachel Shearer (Angelhead, Queen Meanie Puss, Lovely Midget), John Bell (Spoilers of Utopia, The Dominion Centenary Concert Band) and duo James Sullivan (God Destroyer) / Sam Longmore (SL, mf/mp label). The special event is taking place in late March, given the limited capacity of the naturally-formed venue we advise you should snap up your tickets quick. Co-organiser Sam Longmore spoke with Rachel Shearer via email about her own practice and upcoming cave performance, check out the details for SPELEO-SONICS and read their conversation below...

SPELEO-SONICS 
Sunday 25th March - 102 Landscape Road, Balmoral, Auckland
Tickets available HERE via UTR

You are known for your work across various fields – performance, installation, film. How does your approach change in relation to these different modes of presentation?

With performance and installation, initially there is a response to the idea of the space where the event will take place or the idea or ideas relevant to the event itself i.e. what is the event for, who am I performing with, does it have a theme, etc. I’ll select and develop sound material or a process in response to these initial factors. The material is further developed in response to situational factors when installing / performing / exhibiting. When it comes to film it depends on who I’m collaborating with or if its my own moving image project. In collaborative projects, some require a response to the edit where the editor has used temp music/sound, other projects might have editor / director who respond to my sound sequences so there is more communication during the process. These sound sequences are prepared in response to emotional content, patterns or textures contained in images or conceptual ideas relevant to what the film maker wants to express. In my own moving image projects, I shuttle between image and sound. A sound or sound sequence suggests an image (or vice versa) that subsequently dictates the rhythm/editing/content of the work.

Could you please give us a little background about your interest in the environment and sound?

My interest in the environment lies in the idea that we are an integral part of its interconnected process. We all participate in systems within systems that emerge from and impact the ‘environment.’ Sound is the emissions (or voices) of material process (even imagined sound could be called emissions of material process – our imagination is integral to our brain, our body, to the environment and systems that support us). Sounds of the environments provide information, patterns that can be translated into creative sonic or musical outcomes that are grounded in an idea of listening humans as part of primordial process.

Your upcoming performance will take place in a lava cave in Balmoral. Will this effect what you do and how you prepare? How?

As I am unable to spend time in the cave before the event, preparation consists of imagining the caves, its histories, its size, what its made of and what sounds might suit the environment. I do have sequences and collections of sounds I have been working on that are relevant to the volcanic and underground aspects of the site. I’ll re-work some of those, leaving the process open to adjustments, additions (or subtractions) that can be made as part of the performance.

In relation to your recent research, do you have any exciting presentations coming up?

I’ve just finished a focused period of research, the practical outcome of which resulted in an eight channel installation called Te Oro o te Ao (translated as The Resounding of the World). I’m working towards finding the right place to stage that work in the near future. Elements of this work will be part of the lava cave performance.

Listen to Rachel Shearer's track 'pastoral' from the Audio Foundation's 2009 compilation 'Dirt Beneath The Daydream'...