What do whale sounds, 6,000-lumen projectors, analog synthesizers, Tai Chi masters, LED lights and bikinis all have in common? They'll all be in the Webster University Pool (175 Edgar Road; 314-968-7433) for an underwater concert called AQurld Waves. The multi-discipline "theater of senses" presents itself for a one-time event in three separate twenty-minute acts.
RFT Music spoke with creative director and experimental mastermind Rich O'Donnell, who started the not-for-profit Hearding Cats Artists Collective with his wife Anna Lum (one of the Tai Chi masters performing that evening), Mike Murphy and Ryan Harris in 2009. The group commits itself to "keeping St. Louis strange and wonderful," and AQurld Waves certainly provides no exception.
See also: The HEARding Cats collective brings new sounds to St. Louis
RFT Music: What does "AQurld Waves" represent, and what inspired the theme for the concept?
Rich O'Donnell: It is a reduction of the words "aquatic world." Originally, it was a culmination of experiences I've had over a number of years floating in lakes and rivers -- looking up at the shoreline, tree, leaves and surface of the water, seeing the ripples forming images that dancing around. Listening under the water, you hear many things differently and sometimes many more things.
Over the years, I've used many instruments that utilize water but none meant to be played underwater per se like what we're going to do. I tend to be a sound junkie. Being an electronic musician for decades, I tend to analyze things as far as their physical structures and listen based on those physical properties. I can't shut my ears off and if I hear an unusual sound my attention is directed to it. I pay attention and remember it.
Rich O'Donnell at a previous HEARding Cats Collective event
How would you describe the scene and physical experience participants can look forward to at AQurld Waves?
There is a very strong visual element with videos. A colleague we've worked with many times, native St. Louisan Van McElwee, a Guggenheim Grant recipient who teaches at Webster and has exhibited internationally, generated original visions or video files that will then be mixed and processed digitally. Some of these images were taken with underwater cameras from beneath the surface and some above the surface. They will then be shown on the surface of the water and on a large screen at the end of the pool with two large projectors -- very bright theater-like projectors. The illumination of those are measured in lumens and both are 6,000 lumens. Most home projectors are 3,000 so this is very bright.
The images are very beautiful. Both the sounds and images that we'll use are all very abstract. The audience, most of them floating in the water, will see images dancing off their bodies and off the pool bottom. We've already experienced this four times and it does work. It's a very quiet, meditative, focused and peaceful thing. When you're floating in the water, all your attention is focused on your senses. We're providing a lot of stimuli for that.
The event is taking place in three separate short programs, all live improvisation. It's the same for the two people playing synths, Mike Murphy and Kevin Harris. It's mostly analog synths with some digital processing. I'm joined by a colleague Ted Rubright, and we will be standing in the water playing instruments. All these sounds are broadcast in this pool with underwater speakers so people can clearly hear what's going on. It sounds different than the same music played through speakers through the air.
See also: Experimental Artist Kevin Harris Releases a Split Tape
The real focus of the event is to experience a different way of perceiving sensory stimulation. Not everyone wants to get in the water, so they're welcome to sit outside; however, it will sound completely different. I've been thinking about this for almost two decades. Finally, because of Regional Arts Commission's innovation grant, we've been able to bring it to fruition.
What sorts of special instruments and underwater resonating devices did you have to create for the performance, and how did you go about innovating them?
Mostly through past experiences, through learning what resonating bodies do and then placing them in water to see how they react. Most of them fail. If you put a drum in the water, it goes "thunk" and is of no use whatsoever. I needed bodies that resonate continuously like vocal chords in a whale, so I had to make instruments that do that, resonate and sound well with the water speakers and underwater. They're hard to describe verbally. Some are found objects. We've made frames that suspend and transfer their resonance properly. Mine's almost six-feet-tall. I invite people to come see them and hear them.
We are also going to be using aquatic animal sounds. I've spent hundreds of hours listening to various kinds documented since the '70s. Humpback whales come to mind first. They've always been a favorite of mine along with porpoises and harp seals, which can sound like synthesizer sounds yet come from biological animals. It's fascinating what's going on under the surface of the water. Lakes and especially oceans are very busy.
A whale can be heard from hundreds of miles away. They communicate, compose and sing. I was struck by how human-like they are except their range of expression is much wider than our vocal possibilities, from subharmonic sounds to sounds that are higher than a bird, almost instantly. They're very peaceful, amazing animals that use low rumbling, high squeals and even plaintive snores. They constantly change their sounds, and they imitate and improvise just like musicians. All of us evolved are taking a cue from whales in the way they think when they produce sounds. We will reflect this model as we generate electronic music out of respect to animals.
When did you begin rehearsing for the performance, and what obstacles arose throughout the creative process?
In the symphony, when you're interpreting music, you're rehearsing. The idea of what we do is free improvisation in which you respond to the environment around you. It's present time music. We don't rehearse, but we each spend many hours crafting sounds we can use. I've been in pools 4-5 times experimenting with and rejecting things. When we create the event, the audio and video reacting is all improvised. There are all kinds of improvisation from classical East Indian ragas to jazz. Some are based on structures that are understood, but in free improvisation, we don't have that. We form the structure as it goes. Form becomes a verb, not a noun for us. People have to be very creative and very knowledgeable about structure and sound and how it goes together. When it's with the right people, it works beautifully.
The biggest obstacle we encountered was feedback. Sound travels five times faster than it does in the air. We have hydraphones picking up the sound and broadcasting it back into the water. I was surprised at how readily feedback occurs, like a loud squeal on the stage at a concert. The microphone and speaker loop is quite annoying, and in the water, it's magnified many times. I had to find ways of getting around that and creating an air buffer.
Positioning ourselves in the pool area was always open to experimentation. We had to listen carefully to underwater ranges and program best to how underwater speakers respond. Every step of the way was forging something new. Especially in my case, I failed a lot, but I believe in failure. That's how you progress -- try something and say "I'm not going to do that." If you're not failing, you're not trying. I always encourage my students to not be afraid of failure. It's not devastating, it's growth.
What other sorts of inspired performances can we all look forward to from the Hearding Cats Collective?
This one is the big one. There's nothing in September, but on October 22, we're bringing a group from New York of some of our favorite improvising musicians: Konk Pack. In November, we're bringing in some of our favorite composers in music including Morton Subotnick, a master of analog and digital synthesis who will display a lot of the more sophisticated techniques used in electronic music over decades. I encourage anyone who's interested to keep abreast of what the we're bringing in and to look up these artists. It's an exciting ride.
Hearding Cats Collective presents: AQurld Waves Saturday, August 31, 8 p.m. @ Webster University Pool - free
Note: With a capacity for no more than 150 in and out of the pool, plan on arriving early to ensure a spot. Admission is free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis.
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