News and updates on the work of sound artist Mike Hallenbeck http://juniorbirdman.com/archive Composed entirely of field recordings made across the United States, "Living Daylight Savings Time" unfolds as a long-form piece epic in scope yet intimate in detail. The work explores subtle yet radical audio transformations, juxtapositions, and transitions over long periods of time, patiently emerging over about 50 minutes. The start of the piece plunges the listener into a darkness that gradually reveals itself as the hustle and bustle of a food court in NYC's LaGuardia Airport. Lawn sprinklers, sea lions, windblown leaves, and a variety of public spaces (the New York Public Library, the midway of the Minnesota State Fair, the interior of an airplane at 30,000 feet) materialize and coalesce, eventually dissolving or unraveling into digital oblivion. The resulting dream logic explores a new wilderness humankind has carved out of the old one. http://www.insidesmusic.com/insidesmusic/daylightsavings.html I've been invited to present a laptop piece as part of the Portland New Music Society's bi-weekly series on September 10th. I'm planning on working with the early stages of a new project I'm developing centered around assorted bells and chimes, derived from source audio ranging from clinking glasses and wind chimes to field recordings of various bells across the United States and northern India. I'll be in the middle slot between Rick Maas and Scott Stobbe. The show will take place at Jace Gace, the Pacific Northwest's foremost Belgian waffle and ale establishment, at 2045 SE Belmont. It starts at 8 pm. http://www.portlandnewmusic.com Portlanders: Make sure to check out this event on Saturday night 7/19 if you get the chance. It's called "Promenade" and it's a collaboration between dance artist Linda K. Johnson, visual artist Bill Will, sound artist Seth Nehil, and lighting designer Bill Boese. I'll have the pleasure of helping out along with about a zillion other people, in my case by delivering Seth Nehil's music via bicycle (it's Portland after all). http://southwaterfront.com/uncategorized/get-set-for-park-action-20x20-and-promenade/ My new headphone installation "Things I've Said in My Sleep" will be featured in the group exhibition "Overkill #2". The piece features vocalizations of my own transcribed sleeptalk, plus manipulations of a music box and clinking glasses, plus a binaural recording of Tompkins Square Park in NYC. The show opens July 4th at Jace Gace, Portland OR's premier purveyor of Belgian waffles, ales, and art (the art's not necessarily Belgian, but the waffles and ales are). Runs until July 27th. Jace Gace is at 2045 SE Belmont. http://juniorbirdman.com/archive/installations.html "The Secret History of Karaoke" is my new mp3 EP from stasisfield.com. A review on Earlabs calls it "a very agreeable (and occasionally amusing) EP of abstract sound art/collage that gets its point across in just the right amount of time without burdening the listener with excess." Also, the site's been updated with news on recent theater and instllation activities in my new home of Portland OR. Enjoy! http://www.juniorbirdman.com/archive/sound.html April 4th, 2008, Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN-- Looks like I'll be performing around 2:30 PM. And it also looks like this'll be my last performance in the Twin Cities before I move to Portland, OR. It's my big farewell show! http://www.inms.umn.edu/events/series.asp?id=3 Lots of new updates on the web site. New text! New photos! New mp3s! New this! New that! New never got any newer than this, except for that one time when the future overtook the past! http://www.juniorbirdman.com/archive I'm pleased to have been included on a new mp3 compilation curated by John Kannenberg over at Stasisfield. The collection, called "The Sonics of Art Spaces", focuses on the acoustics of museums and galleries across the world. My contribution, entitled "Sound Spandrel: Minnesota Museum of American Art", originated as a headphone piece at the MMAA's "Sound In Art/ Art In Sound" exhibition earlier in 2007. http://www.stasisfield.com/releases/year06/sf-6001.html A few weeks back, London's Resonance FM broadcast an edition of "Framework" produced by yours truly, where I was given the opportunity to spin some field recording-oriented work by artists featured on the Wandering Ear net label I co-curate. To stream this episode, click the link and scroll down to "25.11.07". http://murmer.soundtransit.nl/playlists07.html I'm pleased to announce that a new piece of mine is being featured in an online gallery called HorseMagic, curated by Lasse Nosted over in Norway. The sounds in this installation were prepared exclusively for HorseMagic, and will disappear forever once the exhibition concludes on December 21st-- they're never to be used again, in any context, ever. The source audio is my sister-in-law singing a Bollywood song into another sister-in-law's voice mail. This sound has been processed in various ways; a total of four different sounds can be played back at once, each from a separate QuickTime preview thingee. Thus, each layer of sound can be stopped and started at will, and the volume of each can be adjusted to create a unique mix. With the exception of the first soundfile, which remains fairly constant, each sound evolves over the course of its playback-- so whatever you change will itself change further. Choose your own adventure. http://www.horsemagic.org/sound.html My latest mp3 release "Tactile" is available for free download on Addendum, a net forum for sound works curated by Ben Owen out in NYC. "Tactile" is a series of five improvisations made with various objects and materials in direct contact with a stereo microphone, recorded direct to minidisc. http://seasonalbk.net/_addenda/0709/ The Second Annual Headphone Festival at the Rochester Art Center will feature a dozen musicians, performers, and video artists curated by performers Viv Corringham and Scott Stulen. Experienced entirely through headphones, musicians will perform original compositions comprised of field recordings, samples, live sound improvisation, and analog instruments output through a web of headphone jacks. Many performers will collaborate with a video artist this time around, adding a visual element to the evening. The headphone festival merges the collective concert experience with the intimate listening environment of your own living room. Click the link for more info, including a snazzy full-color promotional PDF! http://www.rochesterartcenter.org/events/publicprograms.html The first in a series of planned remix/ de-mix projects. Each installment will involve the meditative reconstruction of a recorded performance... Eventualities 1 : Voice proceeds from vocalizations by Bryce Beverlin II, recorded by request specifically for this release. I dismantled selections of these recordings (one legato, the other staccato) and put them back together again, using methods ranging from granular synthesis to plain old slowdowns and reverberation. Two resulting montages make up this release... Available for free mp3 download from Insides Music (see link). http://insidesmusic.com/insidesmusic/eventualities.html