Branching Songs
multispecies art project
Listening to the trees, for the sake of the forests
Rehearsal for a Forest
Rehearsal for a Forest, sound art performance, 2023-ongoing
Branching Songs Ensemble
“Our world is a complex matrix of vibrating energy, matter and air, just as we are made of vibrations. Vibration connects us with all beings and connects us to all things interdependently.” —Pauline Oliveros, Quantum Listening
Rehearsal for a Forest invites audiences to consider our relations with water, waves, trees, the land — through sound. Rehearsal for a Forest is a live indoor performance bringing the sounds of trees and forests to urban audiences. The Ensemble uses instruments hand-made from remnants and cast-offs of local trees and plants, combined with electroacoustic techniques, and improvisational approaches. The performance features a Tree Voice instrument activated through electromagnetic fields generated by living trees.
The Ensemble considers this work as a gesture of gratitude for forests.
Branching Songs Ensemble:
Julie Andreyev, land-based instruments
Lara Felsing, land-based methods, Medicine Wheel Blanket
Myles V Feltenberger, Looper instrument
Keira Madsen, Tree Voice instrument
Giorgio Magnanensi, Sitka spruce resonators + diffusion
Simon Lysander Overstall, land-based instruments, software programming
supported by:
Social Sciences Research Council of Canada