Marina Rosenfeld — Totally Huge New Music Festival

Midland Railway Workshops

New York composer and sound artist Marina Rosenfeld took over the Midland Railway Workshops for the finale of the Totally Huge New Music Festival. The converted warehouse became home to two installations by the composer in residence: Teenage Lontano and Cannons.

Teenage Lontano used a teenage choir and suspended speaker installation to create a cover version of Gyorgy Ligeti's orchestral work Lontano. Hisses and whispers drifted from the speakers high in the rafters. Below, 30 teenagers stood spotlighted with headphones in their ears, looking for all the world like they were waiting for a train to arrive.

Following cues from their headphones they began to sing. The wordless "ahs" built gradually into polychords, or clusters of notes semitones apart.

The hazy, pulseless sounds drifted through the architecture of the vast Railway Workshops and the effect was like swimming in a sea of sound. The sounds never reached the screeching intensity of Ligeti's complex music but Rosenfeld created the same breadth of pitch and texture.

This was a gentle re-interpretation and well blended so it was often impossible to distinguish between the voices and the electronic sounds from the speakers.

In Cannons, Rosenfeld explored the reflection of sound from four giant steel pipes installed with subwoofers. Again she mixed recorded sound with live instruments, this time drawing on the improvising talent of ensemble Decibel.

The viola, cello percussion and turntable soloists sounded delicate and metallic next to the subterranean deepness of the pipes.

Installation is about sound interacting with the environment and Tura struck gold when it found this venue to host its resident composer.