Alarm Will Sound’s Video Chat Variations transitions to physical space with Latent Seeds, an audio-visual work by Daniel Neumann, AWS sound engineer.
Latent Seeds was developed through a multi-stage process of listening and improvised playing over the internet – a reflection on spatial awareness, on being present and being part of an acoustic environment that extends beyond the constrained and isolated spaces experienced during the lockdowns of the pandemic. Alarm Will Sound musicians recorded the unique sounds of their households (running water, clinking silverware, rattling radiators, etc.), and shared them with Neumann. Neumann then played these recordings back to the members of AWS through a loudspeaker in their rooms and asked them to respond, on instruments, to what they heard. Through this process, Neumann layers individual environments and recreates, virtually, the AWS community.
Instructions for performance::
[the existing acoustic environment]
imagine contributing to an aural environment / as reaction or new occurrence
sit and sense / yourself within this environment
do not imitate nor calculate / listen
deciding not to make a sound is also playing / environmentally
sometimes play from a distance / engaged in remote listening / imaginative
[away from the microphone] / [what the microphone might be hearing]
textures from the instrument / unrecognized
harmonic relationships / subtly sustained
whereas duration should be strict / subjectively judged / in presence
