Sleepwalking Kuala Lumpur–Montreal video

The whole video recording of the Sleepwalking event that took place April 19, 2011 at Concordia University is now online. More information of the event can be found here. Feedback and comments are welcome in the ‘comment’ section below!

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IASPM Soundwalk Video

A video of a soundwalk led by Andra McCartney at the International Association for the Study of Popular Music Canada (IASPM) conference, Music and Environment: Place, Context, Conjuncture, on June 18, 2011 is now available on Youtube.

Marianopolis Soundwalk Video

A video of Andra McCartney’s soundwalk and presentation at Marianopolis College is now available on YouTube.

Sleepwalking reflection #2

With Sleepwalking: Kuala Lumpur < == > Montreal, I was particularly inspired by the improvised vocal performance that took place between the three collaborators:  Andra McCartney, Kathy Kennedy and Kok Siew Wai.  The artists created a live soundscape/soundtrack to a video piece edited by Kok Siew (largely comprised of images of the Lachine Canal), exploring a diverse set of possible verbal sounds and dynamics, including popping and clicking sound effects, breathy wind-like impressions and layers of drawn out tones.   One of the particular (video) editing challenges of the piece was making sure there was enough space in between each shot for the improvisers to interact and engage with the video.  This required a performative editing on the part of Kok Siew; anticipating the potential vocalizations of the participants while in the ‘editing room’ and to alter the rhythm of the shots accordingly.

Sleepingwalking reflection

The second chapter of Sleepwalking: Kuala Lumpur<==>Montreal used a dynamic, performative approach for presenting soundwalks to an audience. While Siew-wai Kok’s video revealed the three soundwalkers (Kok, Andra McCartney and Kathy Kennedy) rambling in and around the industrial landscape of the Lachine Canal along with recordings from the walk, the same three improvised vocally with the images and sound. This interplay between live performance and the recorded elements made me very aware of the layers of process involved in the piece, including collaboration, soundscape creation, the interaction of sound and image, as well as improvisation. By bringing together live performance with video and soundscape recording, Sleepwalking revealed to me new possibilities for interdisciplinary, multimedia collaboration.

Sleepwalking pictures and sounds

By David Paquette

The Sleepwalking Kuala Lumpur<==>Montreal event, which took place at Hexagram-Concordia on April 19, 2011, gathered a large audience and was broadcasted through teleconference to the Multimedia University in Kuala Lumpur.

Hal Thwaites and Andra McCartney

After brief presentations from Sam Thulin and Lisa Gasior on their MA projects, Andra McCartney introduced Kok Siew Wai, from Malaysia, and presented an audiovisual piece from their walk in Kuala Lumpur. Kathy Kennedy also presented a video of a recent performance based on group singing of “hmms”.

Sam Thulin

The vocal improvisation by McCartney, Siew Wai and Kennedy was particularly well received. The interaction between sounds from the video, the voices of the performers and between the performers themselves, made for a truly rich and evolving improvisation. The event ended with an interactive performance during which McCartney invited the audience to sing a long polyphonic lullaby composed of long, sustained notes, transforming a variety of single lullabies into a large vocal work.

Andra McCartney, Kathy Kennedy and Kok Siew Wai

Andra McCartney, Kok Siew Wai and a glimpse of the audience

Below is an audio recording of the performance (mp3 file, 57MB).

Masjid Jamek downtown soundwalk in Kuala Lumpur

The accompanying PDF file is an article by Andra McCartney published in Entitle, the electronic magazine of the Faculty of Creative Multimedia, Multimedia University (No. 03, Vol. 01, August 2010: 16-17), Malaysia. McCartney conducted a soundwalk in Kuala Lumpur’s downtown with a sound class from Multimedia University in late January 2010. You can hear (and see) the soundwalk below.

Entitle Article