Overheard Music

Strange Music in Small Doses

Listen Ability Rating: Given the approach many of these musicians and artists take, we might say: the instrument as body, the body as instrument.For this sequence of sounds we ventured into the limitless universe that is ubuweb and found a recent "audio response" to an art exhibit at the ICA in Boston. This compilation is called Music Overheard and was edited by Damon Krukowski. "Rather than look to the latest computer-based electronica-the futuristic sounds of tomorrow-I wanted to gather work made by traditional means, which would not have been possible outside today's digital audio environment." - Damon KrukowskiOur set focuses on the body as instrument and starts with a piece by Matmos titled "Memnto Mori" which is composed entirely from samples of human skull, goat spine and connective tissue, and artificial teeth.The second piece is "Ritual with Giant Hissing Madagascar Cockroaches" and was performed by Miya Masaoka with thirteen Madagascar Cockroaches. She triggered the insects' amplified hissing noises while they were crawling over her body.The last selection was "The Body is a Sound Factory" by Henri Chopin. He is one of the pioneers of sound poetry, both with his own works and with his work as a publisher. Since the 1950s, Chopin has explored the amplification of the voice and the body, the vibrations of the larynx, the labial snaps and the hiss of bodily systems.