MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels)
3680, rue Jeanne-Mance, bureau 103, Montréal, QC
STUDIO 4F – 2pm to 4.30pm
This workshop revisited Songs and Mobile Chorus (two strands of the project, Golden), and re-made them in response to the specific cultural and social contexts mediated by MAI.
The original Songs (I, II, III, 2005) are short sound pieces based on sung instances of the word ‘golden’. Selected from tracks featuring ‘golden’ in the title (according to iTunes’ search function c. spring 2005), these excerpts are rearranged to produce several condensed audio interludes, at once plaintive, joyful and wistful. MAI workshop participants nominated new tracks featuring the lyric ‘golden’ (in French, Japanese, and Portuguese, as well as English), and these were mixed on site to produce a first cut of Songs IV (Montreal). Listen to the mix below:
Chorus (2006) is a 3-minute score for 5 voices, derived from the earlier Songs. Chorus becomes ‘mobile’ when participants take up these 5 parts by singing along to instrumental versions of the vocal parts, disconnected by their headphones yet connected by their voices, and slightly out of synch (both with their tracks, and with each other). For Mobile Chorus (Montreal), participants sang each vocal part in turn, then repeated this – thus singing continually for 30 minutes, while wandering through various public spaces – from rue Jeanne Mance towards the Place des Arts, and back again – a prolonged act of engineered spontaneity. [Documentation coming soon]
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Many thanks to the artists, musicians and performers: Evelyne Drouin, Sophie Gee, Pablo Matos, Milton Tanaka; Alejandro De León (camera) and Joey Mallat (sound).
SPSL 