Sounds of Zero Gravity

At 4:00 PM today, I was standing in a line of people outside the doors of EMPAC's Theater waiting to hear the performance by Maryanne Amacher, a composer of electronic sound shapes created by what you could think of as extreme surround sound in order to mimic a multifaceted atmosphere. By using over 30 speakers placed in a very particular location and direction as well as changing certain attributes of the Theater, such as having all curtains up and revealing an open space under the stage, she created sounds and complex dissonant harmonies that seem to be coming from a space so large that it emulates outer space itself. This performance was called The Star Room. 

The lights were dim as the sound emerged from silence in a soft gradient. As it developed, I started to recognize more tones coming from the distant noise. It was a type of progression that suggests a mysterious adventure into a large, unknown world. The transitions between certain tones and volumes were so smooth and interesting that I never lost attention to the movements of sound going on in the space. There were long periods of huge, rumbling sound that I could feel pulsing through my entire body, giving such an intense feeling of being overwhelmed by the simulation of the colossal entity that could be causing such vibrations. During the parts where I could hear pitches more clearly, some overtones brought on a sense of discovery and admiration. At some of the loudest parts, there were so many different pitches at once that I found myself frozen in my chair from the frightening intensity of the massive mixture of frequencies. The almost constant dissonance in this piece was so beautifully arranged because there were so many types that provoked different feelings and made for intricate transitions. The long, developing tones were also successful at making the sound seem to emanate from a faraway place, no matter how loud or soft.

Complete silence came back for about 20 seconds as we waited for the second part. It was a similar development to the first part of the piece. I really enjoyed the fact that she used noises that did not have tones or developed into tones because it gave the sound even more of an atmosphere. Much of it sounded like a distorted electric organ. The second part did not even get half as loud as parts of the first, but this time most of the dissonance was clearer and easier on the ears. When it got softer and sounded further away, I had a feeling of yearning for it to come back. The audience, anticipating more after silence came again, waited to applaud until one of the collaborators stated, “That was the end of the second part.”

Although this piece was not completed and was partly an interpretation of her collaborators, I believe it was very successful in achieving its original goal discussed at the end: to simulate zero gravity. It leads me to wonder what it would have been like if there was a projection as well as the completion of the piece by Ms. Amacher. By setting up the speakers so one could not hear sound coming from any individual one, the movement of sound is perfect in the space which it takes up. Someone brought up a subject I thought about in the beginning of the piece. He asked why the space was not complete darkness and instead a dim light. The response was that you could close your eyes if you wished for it to be dark, and open them if you prefer it otherwise. This was my only criticism in the performance, as I would rather it have been dark so that I my brain could interpret only sound during the piece since vision had no importance. Despite this matter, I did not have a hard time paying attention to the sophisticated sounds of this experimental performance because it was an extremely enjoyable and incredible experience.

While I was not able to find any good quality previous pieces of Ms. Amacher, I found that she has done a lot of compositions related to environmental soundscapes and has also collaborated with John Cage in this manner. She fits the avant-garde style in that the way she had an innovative way to create, emit, and transmit sound shapes to emulate a specific atmosphere with interesting sounds like nothing I’ve heard before.