Cantus and James Turrell

Sonic Architecture

Behind Walker Arts Center near downtown Minneapolis, a concrete walkway carved into the sloping terrain leads to an amazing space named Sky Pesher, designed by artist James Turrell (born 1943, Pasadena, CA). Once inside, the bunker-like concrete structure directs the observer’s eye to a 16-foot rectangular opening in the ceiling. A heated ledge around the internal circumference invites one to sit, lean back, and contemplate the sky’s ever-changing colors and moods, isolating the visitor from all buildings, trees, and city sounds.

The word “pesher” is Hebrew for “interpretation.” Among the Dead Sea scrolls, Essene scripts have been discovered that isolate each verse of a Torah book, such as Psalms, followed by a written contemplation of the text in order enhance one’s understanding of the passage. Likewise, Turrell invites us to expand our perception of a piece of sky.

Turrell has created a number of such visual experience installations around the country, each with its own unique setting and effect, playing with elements of perceptual psychology and optical illusion. His art spaces suggest a visual realization of Paul Schaeffer’s Reduced Listening theory and l’object sonore (the sonic object). Yes, we know it’s the sky, but once we get past that bit of the obvious and look with new eyes, we’re able to see colors change from pale blue to screaming orange, perceive warmth or coolness, watch white and grey and charcoal shapes undulating in the opening – appreciating the light on a completely different level.

As Turrell writes, “My spaces must be sensitive to events outside themselves. They must bring external events into themselves. I think of my works as being important in terms of what they have to do with us and our relationship to the universe, but not necessarily in scientific terms.”


Cantus is a professional all-male a cappella ensemble heralding from St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN where friends got together in 1995 just for the fun of singing. They have gone on to perform over 400 concerts in the United States and abroad, all to glowing accolades. Cantus performs without a conductor, listening and watching each other with rapt attention to the smallest details of the sound they’re making.

As 2010-2011 artists in residence with Minnesota Public Radio, Cantus has been exploring unusual acoustic spaces around the Minneapolis/St. Paul area in a project called “Sonic Architecture.” Sky Pesher was the perfect place for them to perform, whether it was for a crowd of 50-70 (all that can cram into the space), or just for themselves. In this space, Cantus chose to improvise on a traditional Indian Raga chant, utilizing mouth cavity alterations to create all manner of overtones and acoustic surprises. Cantus’ artistic co-director and baritone, Adam Reinwald, says of the event, “The harmonic overtone style combined with improvised Indian Classical Raga created a very ethereal, almost alien sound, which was a reaction to the austerity and simplicity of the space.”

Combination of the stark coolness of Turrell’s Sky Pesher and Cantus’ encompassing warmth of sound created an experience of enormous depth and spirituality. I invite you to treat yourself to a few moments of awe that this unplanned collaboration offers. http://bcove.me/ac12ut9f

More information on Sky Pesher: http://www.artsconnected.org/resource/120274/five-elements-of-contemporary-art-space-james-turrell-s-sky-pesher-2005/tab/comments

More Cantus Sonic Architecture:
Stairwell at MPR -- http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/12/17/cantus-stairwell/
Wabasha Caves http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/11/30/cantus-caves/
Under the bridge at Lake of the Isles -- http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/11/18/mntoday-cantus-bridge/




Margo Kanthak

MUSM 435 -- Spring 2010

Animusic

Dave Kent

I stumbled onto this company while browsing youtube. They are called animusic and they create computer animated video albums. They do this by using software of their own design that doubles as both 3D animation software as well as midi sequencing software. This allows them to create animations that can be programmed to trigger midi notes. The result is an animation that seems like it's creating the music rather than reacting to it.

The team is made up of two guys: Wayne Lytle and Dave Crognale. Dave is responsible for the artistic aspects of each piece, mainly the set design. He is responsible for creating all of the instruments in each set. All of the instruments that he comes up with are quite incredible such as a guitar with three necks complete with robot fingers, he also adds pipes onto it to create flute sounds.

Wayne is in charge of the mechanical aspects of each set. He is in charge of figuring out how the instruments created by Dave should move, as well as how all the virtual cameras in each set should move. He is also the one who composes the music using the midi sequencing aspect of their software.

In the end everything is computer generated including the music which is midi. However, thanks to their amazing software you still get a very realistic experience that is both fun to watch and listen to. They currently have two DVDs out and it sounds like they are working on a third.

Here are some pieces they have made:

Social Network- Music and Film

I have not had a chance to check out the movie “The Social Network” but the only reason I care to see it is because I am a huge fan of Trent Reznor (nine inch nails)of which scored the film. I have listened to a few of the soundtracks on YouTube and they remind me of what most of the ghosts album tracks are like. Every track has an image that it has been set to. The music gives the overall impression/feeling of the image. So yea his music works well with visual media.

I found it very cool coming across an interview with the people involved with production of the music for “The Social Network.” It gave some insight on the process they took in the making of the music and the collaboration that came about with the director. The director had Reznor in mind the whole time for the score. He was going for a synthesizer 80’s style mixed with modern scoring technique. I also found it interesting while shooting scenes they immediately were thinking about the music by putting temporary tracks to use as a starting place/idea/general mood.
In this project Reznor also works with Atticus Ross, of which he has been collaborating with since With Teeth (around 2005.) In the interview Reznor tells a little how they work, he free composes a little, and Ross tweaks it and/or arranges it differently, Reznor comes back and says who made this piece? Its cool what two people can come up with, it’s like a synthesis and things can happen in ways that one may never have thought possible. Also on how they worked, they sent mp3’s of the tracks to the director, found where material was placed, got feedback, and rearranged the music as they saw fit. Another challenge they had to overcome was re-imagining “In the hall of the mountain king” (Grieg) in synthesized manner. They ended up pulling it off and it sounds pretty good it... Wendy Carlos… eat your heart out.

This was cool to see a guy work outside his comfortable medium and do something different and successful with other people. I think he won some awards for scoring the film… I’m sure Reznor will be doing more work like this and it should be awesome to see what is next.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpqy_y39-Ac

Scratch the surface

From Christopher Hobbs reenactment of the Richmond Journey concert, it struck me that the scratch orchestra performed in non-traditional performance space. When doing the initial research it was never brought to my attention that when they performed it was not always in a space I am costumed to seeing a performance in. There is another aspect to the orchestra in which a concert may take all day moving from one space to another while performing different compositions. I must say my excitement about the group just exploded into hysteria. How amazing, especially for the performers. Going on an adventure with a group, experiencing what the composer instructed in their score. Your learning and performing the best way, through live interaction. Hobbs stated how much of an impact the orchestra had on the members even with its short life span. I’m able to understand this impact better through hearing an actual member telling the events. As stated by Christopher Hobbs, “John Cages’s notion that all noises, and all silences, can be music was the underlying inspiration.”

Tango Mechanique

By Olga Oseth
While searching on google for collaborative works I have found this awesome video of Tango Mechanique http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nEXsjxGGr0. It is by composer Hsiao- Lan Wang. She curently lives right now in Montana. She is Taiwanese composer and conductor living in United states. She collaborated with Daniel Zajicek, who is a composer and video artist.  Most interested in beauty and the bizarre, his musical output consists of solo, chamber, choral, electronic, video, and theater music. I really like HLW musical style. I listened to couple of her works  Nouveau Park , Tango Mechaniques and  Made in...(2008). She has collaborated with other artists for her works. Tango Mechanique at the beginning was like with curtain on the stage and I expected the curtains to open up and have dancers come out but it was different, totally not what I expected. In the visual aspect of it there were a lot of pipes and many digital squares type of thing flowing up and down the screen which I thought was very nicely done. The music was very rhythmical its like there was a story being told without words.
This is a link to the website with more workds by HLW
It is pretty cool check it out!
http://www.hsiaolanwang.com/?page_id=83
The second collaboration between Hsiao-Lan Wang and Daniel Zajicek, Tango Mécanique explores the dance of conflict and compromise between visual and sonic elements. Rich symbolism residing in the images triggers memories and impressions, while the music boasts heightened rhythmic energy that makes you think twice about what you are really seeing on the screen.
Lan Wang composes for orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo instruments, and electronic media. Her music investigates the fundamental elements of musical communication through new timbral, formal, and technological relationships.


I actualy found out that Hsiao- Lan Wang and Daniel Zajicek are married and they do quite a bit of collaborative work together.  Daniel Zajicek has some awesome video arts if anyone is interested 
http://tri-jack.org/projects/?p=163.


I think Tango Mechanique music has some interesting digital sounds, sometimes it sounds like there is water running through the pipes or maybe if string instruments are bowing super fast, it gives a feel of anxiety building up that all resolves with new motives being played. I like the bell sound at aproximately 2.17 seconds of this piece,  at aprox. 5.01 the visual part of this piece is building tension, which goes really well with the music.

On The Horizon

I understand that our blogs are supposed to be about a collaborative work, but I found this and I thought that it was important enough to share. For 2008, 2009 and 2010 the Gerbode and Hewlett Foundations have been awarding six $75,000 commissions for collaborative artworks. In 2008, grants were awarded for choreographer collaborations, in 2009 they were awarded for playwright collaborations. The winners for the 2010 collaborative commissions were just announced on January 19, 2010 and were for Composer collaborative works.

The work I am specifically excited about is called "Off the Walls" and will premier at San Francisco's de Young museum in 2013. It features Sarah Wilson, who is a trumpeter and composer who has received several awards and grants, and wide acclaim for her recent album "Trapeze Project" which features her on trumpet and vocals with clarinet, bass, piano and percussion.

The dance company selected to work with Sarah Wilson is called "Catch Me Bird" and appropriately enough, are an aerial dance company. Demo Video The de Young museum was chosen because of it's unique architecture and landscape, and "Off the Walls" is to be specifically composed and choreographed for that space, much as Poème Electronique was written for the Philips pavilion in 1958.

There were six recipients of this prestigious award, and all works will be premiered between December 2011 and June 2013.

1958 Brussels World Fair

I was recently reading Dr. Miller's blog at http://www.indabamusic.com/#!/artists_in_residence/scott-miller which specifically has an entry on collaborative works. He referenced the 1958 Brussels World Fair which seemed to me, a very good place to start.

Royal Philips electronics had asked famous architect Le Corbusier (1887-1965) to design the Philips pavilion for the World's Fair to be held in Brussels. Le Corbusier ended up designing the visuals inside of the space, and the design of the building (from a sketch of Le Corbusier) and some of the music in the entrance and exit (Concrèt PH) was a man working for him by the name of Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001).

"Suddenly there sprang to my mind, out of the unknown, the notion of an 'Electronic Poem,' " Le Corbusier said later. "A work capable of profoundly affecting the human sensibility by audio-visual means. . . to bring together on the creative level, by means of electronics, speed, number, color, sound, noise, unlimited power." Of course there had to be music; very bold, very special music. "Sounds, noises, unlimited power," Le Corbusier brooded, "a new creation opening all before it. . . . Suddenly I thought of Varese."
(http://www.sfsound.org/tape/varese.html)

Edgard Varèse (1883-1965) is known as the "Father of Electronic Music" and is credited with coining the term "organized sound". He composed "Poème Electronique" for the Philips pavilion to accompany images encountered when walking through the structure.

About 350 speakers were used in the installation and were used to spatialize the music to correspond with images, location of the audience and to utilize the acoustic of the physical structure itself.

Poème Electronique with images!

More photos of the 1958 Philips pavilion.

Native Inspired: MusicDanceTheatreVisualArtMedia

Gallery Exhibition at Perpich Center for Arts Education
Golden Valley, MN
January 2011

Nothing says collaboration and interrelated media quite like a recent public exhibit at Perpich Center for Arts Education during the month of January 2011. The “Arts High School,” as it is commonly known, draws gifted arts-focused students who, whether musicians, dancers, painters, writers, or media artists, take classes in most every discipline, as well as secondary school academics required by the state of Minnesota.

High school juniors and seniors drew inspiration from the Native American Arts & Culture and American Indian Aesthetics classes that were taught this last fall and winter. At the gallery opening of “Native Inspired” on January 6th, dancers and musicians performed live pieces to complement the visual art works on display. Three of the musicians in the class improvised to "Nanook of the North" and, according to their teacher Tom Kanthak, “We often created ‘stuff’ during the class while I read stories, played music” and such. Media students participated in a video production that introduced the exhibit to the public via their local Patch online news. http://goldenvalley.patch.com/articles/video-native-inspired-gallery-opens-at-arts-high-school-in-golden-valley#photo-4343857 Native American elders were on hand to share their stories and experiences with visitors at intimate table settings. And, of course, there were many interesting, inspiring, and beautiful visual arts pieces to view and ponder. All of these various artistic expressions emerged from the two classes.


The Center of Forever
Emi Hasty
“When award-winning Minnesota author Kent Nerburn spoke to our class earlier this year, he said, ‘Blue is the color of forever.’ These words served as an inspiration for this piece of art. I have been fascinated with Native American history, aesthetics, and culture this fall and winter. I’ve used the class as a catalyst for my own research and I have found inspiration in my discoveries. I’ve realized that when I really pay attention, I see that all my experiences all fit together into a sort of beautiful patchwork puzzle!
In this piece, I am exploring the idea of found objects in creating art. The Native American aesthetic is often defined by the materials used to create functional objects of beauty. I’ve used materials from my home including iris sees from my garden and pushpins from my basement. I look at this as an experiment in visual limitations.
I am extremely grateful for the opportunities and experiences I have been blessed to have had this semester in this class. I want to continue to learn and create art inspired by earth centered traditions and cultures. Mii gwetch!”

A Little Piece of Everything (watercolor)
Taylor Moretter

“I named this because compared to all the native american stuff we learn, we are just a tiny piece of it. there is so much to learn and tom does a great job at teaching us. I love the kiddish style of this drawing. tom has a very easy going way of teaching us. I based this drawing of a painting call ‘as time passes.’ note: this is my first and last time using a typewriter. thank you.”



Native American Aesthetics
Hanna Peterson
“For the pictures I showed in Tom Kanthak’s gallery, I did not focus on Native American culture, but mostly used my own inspiration and connected it with the things that we have discussed and learned. I used different types of printing for an on-looker to not only see my pictures, but feel as if they are there. The pictures are a collection of old photography and new technology that has taken over the media world. One of the pictures is digital and phoshopped and two of them are silver gelin prints that were developed in the darkroom, and one of those is handcolored with oil paings. I have a collaboration of styles to represent that Native American culture is still becoming part of society and should be always recognized.”

Duality (charcoal and marker)
Asmaa Bint Abdul-Azeem
“The four directions and the Fibonacci sequence. These are aspects of the way of the world and how it works are really interesting, because I believe even if people have unlocked puzzle pieces of it, there will always be an abundance of mystery. These mysteries are symbolized by declarations of shapes, numbers and images. I used the butterfly because it is a common symbol of transformation and that metaphor is a main theme that I honor. Behind the butterfly is a glyph of the four directions, a major focus in the American Indian aesthetics. My picture is taking non-obvious happenings and manifesting them in a sort of raw expressionist manner.”

To see more about what these amazing kids and teachers are doing, visit http://nacafall2010.wikispaces.com and http://aiafall2010.wikispaces.com/.

Margo Kanthak -- MUSM 435 Spring 2011

Conscious Breathing Interactive

"Lungs:The Breather" is an interactive art installation that explores the bodily process of breathing. They call also call it an installation environment because the "audience" or participant is immersed in the piece. You are not simply an observer of the piece. I found the video on "MediaArtTube", where there are a few hundred intermedia art projects.

The installation is a 4 person experience where the participant breaths into a mask that senses the air pressure and immediately responds with a sound and video reaction. Each person controls 4 jellyfish, and each jellyfish can interact with the others. As one person’s breath makes the jellyfish react in different ways, they interact with the other people's jellyfish too.

The effect of the piece is that the participant becomes very CONSCIOUS and AWARE of their breathing, which is a very unconscious and automatic bodily function for most people. The participants begin to realize their own identity in a different way, especially when experienced within a collective (with the other jellyfish controlled by other people's breathing).

This sound/visual installation breaks free from the "observer art" that we look at but do not experience fully, and it allows/requires that the observer has a direct experience of the piece, a deeply conscious experience. In my opinion, this is the way I want to push art and music. When you give the opportunity for someone to create, interact or "perform" in any way, especially “non-performers”, they begin to see themselves in a radically different way. This piece, “Lungs: The Breather” is a breath from the newest form of art performance, from several artists who use the lessons from the best teachers. Offer the opportunity for exploration and discovery and step out of the way for your students to experience and learn in their own way. In that way, “Lungs” strikes on a brilliant new application of interactive technology. This use of technology can be utilized for many kinds of direct, hands-on experiences... youth education, interactive entertainment, spiritual experiences... it’s limitless.


-Chase Binnie
MUSM 435

Fluxus and my dislike about it

By Olga Oseth

Fluxus is a name taken from Latin word meaning to flow- it is an international network of artists composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in 1960. They were very active with Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature and urban planning and architecture and design. Fluxus can also be described as intermedia. Fluxus was mostly explored by Cage in his experimental music in the 50’s. His most famous work for that was 4’33”. I have watched this on youtube performed by the full orchestra. I think it is stupid to have a conductor, full orchestra, all the instruments, make performers dress in concert attire and not play/make a single sound the whole performance. I do not understand how people would even pay money to listen to silence. I mean John Cage has some nice works but this is just a joke for classical musicians and I think for experimental music as well. I mean this piece there was literary NO SOUND, not even the clock ticking. What is up with that? I do not understand how did Cage even write this. In my opinion this is not even written its nothing with a name to it, I can take silence and call it Feathers for example and it would be the same this as Cage’s 4’33”. I have also tried to find other works on fluxus and I will tell you I was not impressed with any of it. Another work that I found was Fluxus/Performance Art: Do Geese See God? And I mean maybe the art would be modern art that I do not understand but I do not see hoe smelling/talking to the dead goose is going to answer any questions about God, ridiculous! The music that they put to this video was also inappropriate for my taste. I guess I am not a person who understands this art. Another example of fluxus I found is called George Maciunas – fluxus. This piece includes man in professional suits with boxes instead of heads. Music was not bad, I liked the whisper because it went well with the whole idea of creepy but I just don’t see this whole box thing.

                                                           

Decasia by Gordon

This is a film that mixes deteriorating celluloid and music. Film uses exstatics of decay to explore what lasts and what does not. Originally conceived of a live environmental multimedia performance with full orchestra. The European Music Month commissioned Michael Gordon to write a symphony that would be performed by 55 piece basel sinfonietta and staged by Ridge Theater. Film was created as part of production. There was a special 3 story floor hight scaffolding build and audience looked up through the projections to see musicians illuminated from behind the scrim.  This film was first performed in November 2001 in Switzerland. Bill Morrison reedited his film to correspond to Gordons music, which became the sountrack of the film.Once the music and images were set on film, “Decasia” reached an audience that was almost unprecedented for a work of experimental cinema and new classical music. This film brings intense emotions from the past.  Now Decasia exists in 2 formats. The staged version completely alters the performance space. Morrison first showed Gordon the damaged archival film that he discovered. They were marked with corroison and riddled by pockmarks. The first thing the composer thought of was the piano that had not been tuned in 20 years, which after hearing tracks of this film I did not think he used which is a shame because I think it would of created better effect of molded memories.  The Composer instead used three flutes, one was in tune and second flute tuned 8th note higher, and third flute is tuned an 8th note lower. When the flutes play in unison the sound sounds thick. So the whole orchestra was tuned this way to get thick sound production. Through this piece Decasia, music is very simple but you can not hear it that well because it is covered up. The resulting sound changes one's bearing to tonality, melody and harmony. The music becomes unstable. You enter a realm, like standing at the gates of heaven, wondering if there are 500 choirs of angels singing, because the overtones and the out-of-tuneness creates a massive complexity of sonorities.  Decasia is dedicated to Louis Andriessen. 


This is the link to one parts of Decasia that I found very interesting


 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy5HD8Ddw1s&feature=related


I think it is a really cool idea to put the dying sort of speak film into a new film. This film/music kind of gave me a feeling of running away from something in the dream and not being physically able to run.  When I first watched the documentary on this film I was not sure if the music was specifically made for the documentary or for the film when I did more research I found out it was written for the film. I love the aspect of full orchestra playing at the same time all the time because it really gives a feeling of moving forward. And when I watched parts of this film, it was really cool how the deteriorating film was showing images that looked like scientific molecules and cells, because of the way they were shaped. I found this very interesting collaboration because it was the Film director that came up to musician and they started on it together, felt like every step of the way was collaborated. 

Einstein on the beach

Olga Oseth

Studio for Interrelated Media

Musm 435

Dr. Twombly

Blog no.1  on “Einstein on the beach”

            After doing some research on the “Einstein on the beach” I found out that the composers call it an opera because it is pieces and fragments. This opera was premiered in 1976 in France, it consists of four movements that are connected by a series called “knee play”, and it marked the international breakthrough for its creators and changed what audiences might expect from opera, theater or performance art. Many critics have called this opera “timeless” because it is a one of a kind product that should be cherished for life.  There are only few people that have experienced this opera live.  This piece defies the rules of conventional opera. This piece does not use the traditional orchestral arrangement; it uses synthesizers, woodwinds and voices of the Philip Glass Ensemble. The work uses powerful recurrent images that are shown through dance that was created by choreographer Lucinda Childs and constructed in the classical principle of theme and variation. This piece was the first collaboration between Glass and Wilson. This is Glass’s first and longest opera score it is approximately 4 and a half hours.  The reason why this piece was created was because Glass and Wilson decided to do a collaborative work together and decided on an opera that was 4 to 5 hours in length. Glass and Wilson insisted on portraying historical image for the opera. Even though they chose symbols from Einstein’s life they decided against having a plot to the opera. The words that are used in the opera consist of numbers, solfege syllables and short sections of poetry. There is even one-hour documentary movie made on the play because it is such an inspiring and changing image of Opera. The music assigned to Einstein demonstrated a circular process, which becomes a repeating cycle that constantly delays resolution. This process uses both additive and subtractive formulas. Specifically themes within the opera allude to nuclear weapons science and AM radio. Opera consists of nine connected 20-minute scenes. This opera requires a cast of 2 female and 1 male and 1 male child in speaking roles, a 16 person SATB chamber chorus with great soprano solo part and a smaller tenor part and three reed players. From watching couple parts of this play I actually understood the topic for our project better and would love to see the play in real life. I think this play is def. good meditation piece, because when we were watching it today in class I found myself relax as well as think about other topics. I think the music in this opera helped the script more than the visual aspects to describe Einstein's thoughts.

A Survey of Website Audio Soundtracks for MUSM 435

by Margo Kanthak

The following natural science website videos were collected to compare audio components. Each video is truly fascinating in itself and I highly recommend you visit at least a couple of the sites below purely for enjoyment (if not a little education about our planet and universe).

However good a video may be, when audio is included, I expect it to provide enhancement of or definition to the content. During this survey, the relative success of each of these selections in meeting my audio expectation ranges from the music being a mere backdrop (1) to providing an element essential for the total experience (5). I welcome others’ comments and suggestions about the creative and contributory aspects of the audio compositions you'll hear. How could we do better?

Towers in the Tempest:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUG4-TEqPYc&feature=player_embedded
Originally from: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003400/a003413/index.html
Computer-generated model of a recent hurricane: The audio is innocuous New Age synthesizer rambling that is far more conducive to meditation than a tempestuous hurricane. What could have been dramatic sounds of wild winds were more like a summer evening breeze.
Rating: 1 / 5

Icebridge:
http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/search/Person/PerkinsLori.html
(Video #10678 -- about halfway down the page)
An ongoing study of glacier movement: The lively country guitar instrumental suggests a hint of American explorer, certainly appropriate to this video. The music also signals a scene change at one point. Other than that, I did not find the music to be significant to the bulk of the video.
Rating: 2 / 5

Fermi Sees Antimatter-Hurling Thunderstorms: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=49435631
Recent study of the effect of lightning: The information NASA presents is truly fascination, but the non-descript music is only punched with percussion for the lightning strikes. No other audio enhancement of the video is offered.
Rating 2 / 5

The Early Earth and Plate Tectonics:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDqskltCixA&feature=fvw
National Geographic five-minute video on a theory of Earth's land masses and tectonic plate: The professional-quality audio really makes a difference. Music changes frequently with the scenes and the sound effects definitely enhance the visual experience. One would expect such excellence of a television production, and it does not disappoint.
Rating: 4 / 5

One Second Before the Big Bang:
http://www.mandala-corporation.com/movie/bigbang.html (Quick Time)
or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FON1IA14vXU
Multi-faceted theories on the origin of the universe: Mandala Corp.’s first HDV short film was produced in 2009 as an experiment in fobots animation. Regrettably, no credits are given for the computer music composition. The superb audio component is as important to the enjoyment and comprehension of the material as the visual animation. BRAVO!
Rating: 5 / 5

Mon Oncle

What a cool movie. I love the way Jacques Tati directed the sound and cinematography of this movie. The sounds fit the locations perfectly. The stark, gray Arpel house is complimented by reverberant footsteps, annoying doorbells, and buzzing kitchen appliances. The incessant fish fountain almost mocks them with the natural sounds of water. Tati creates a separate world of sounds for Hulot, who is surrounded by the cries of street vendors, sounds of motorists, and songs of birds. These contrasting worlds present the stereotypical conflicts of nature vs. industry or natural vs. the unnatural in a new and entertaining setting. The use of sounds to portray these places is one of the strong points of the film. In many ways it reminds me of distopian fiction; Brave New World, 1984, Fahrenheit 451, though not as grave in tone as these stories, Mon Oncle presents the same conflicts in a light-hearted setting.

M, the movie

At first listen, M presents a sparse soundscape. Sound effects are rare, and dialogue comprises the majority of the sound. Many scenes show an odd (to the modern viewer) absence of sound; lacking the sounds of footsteps, constant clicks of guns, and roar of vehicles we're accustomed to. This isn't really surprising considering that the film was made during the infancy of cinema. In an era where films with sound were still called "talkies" it's to be expected that mere dialogue itself was enough to keep the viewers interested. However, instead of being a distraction, I found myself focused on the narrative of the movie instead. And of course, the distinctive whistling (one could almost call it a leitmotif) contrasts the dialogue and draws our attention immediately. I think it would be interesting if a filmmaker decided to make a movie using as sparse a soundscape as we see here. Would the modern audience have the patience to watch it?