Event Info
Stefan Christoff's Sounding Worlds and Liam Hockley at the Orange Light
Pianist and composer Stefan Christoff presents his Sounding Worlds project. Free improvised set from
7:00pm - 10:00pm
Artists
Stefan Christoff's Sounding Worlds
Event Description
Sounding Worlds
A music soundscape performance by Stefan Christoff
“Sounding Worlds” is an interactive sound project led by musician and community organizer
Stefan Christoff who shapes compositions that incorporate electronics, piano and soundscapes.
This initiative mixes musical elements with a series of curated field recordings contributed by
artists around the world. Aesthetically the musical foundation for “Sounding Worlds” is shaped
by ambient orientations and collaborative soundscape practices.
Technically the works are driven by a series of composed musical motifs that are built by
improvisation and notated melodies, creating the basis for complex scores that involve
instrumentation and field recordings.
There are important points of social orientation to this project.
“Sounding Worlds” is also deeply shaped by soundscape contributions by artists working in
different global geographies. In this context, Christoff composes works that are sonically
positioned beyond one specific locale, as diverse field recordings create auditory references to
multiple cities internationally.
In the pandemic context, Christoff is working remotely with sound artists globally to register this
historical moment. This project interacts with our collective international experience of loss and
grief driven by the pandemic, with the layers of global soundscapes that Christoff has curated
over the last months offering a set of unique sonic portraits speaking to resilience within a
diversity of collective social and political ruins in the now.
The “Sounding Worlds” process is based on active collaborations with artists who have recorded
soundwalks in their respective cities Beirut, Lebanon, (Jad Hajjar), Mexico City (Alfredo
Bojórquez), Puebla, Mexico (Dawn Marie Paley), New York City Palermo, Italy (Joseph
Sannicandro), Sofia, Bulgaria (Angel Simitchiev), Freetown, Sierra Leone (Mohamad Cheblak)
and Skopje, North Macedonia (Toni Dimitrov).
In this light, this music project aims to creatively navigate sound across a multiplicity of spaces
on the Earth at this time of crisis, resilience and healing.
Moreover this music and soundscape project builds on Christoff’s active collaboration with
community radio projects globally. Specifically, the sonic elements involved, including voice,
music and field recordings also form the basis for radio broadcasts. The works will be broadcast
on CKUT 90.3FM in Montréal, CFRC 101.9FM in Kingston, Ontario, CKUW 95.9 FM in
Winnipeg, Radio Béguin (radiobeguin.com) in Lyon, France and Radio AlHara
(yamakan.place/palestine) in Bethlehem, Palestine.
In creating a layered auditory environment the compositions on “Sounding Worlds” aim to open
spaces for reflection and regeneration, ideals shaped by Stefan’s long-term engagement with
community-oriented artistic practices rooted in ongoing collaborations with engaged artists both
locally and globally.
“Sounding Worlds” is in essence a contemporary musical project speaking to this moment of
global urgency in creative ways.
Liam Hockley performs a free improvised set for clarinet, bass clarinet and electronics.
A versatile musician for whom “alternative or avant-garde approaches to his instrument are only part of the everyday tool kit” (Georgia Straight), Canadian clarinetist Liam Hockley is a dynamic performer of classical music and passionate advocate for new and experimental music. He has performed internationally as a soloist and ensemble member and recently released Pulse-Tide, an album of spectralist basset horn works. Liam holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in clarinet performance from the University of British Columbia and maintains an active performance schedule on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland.
In-Person Event
Fri. August 30th 2024 + Add to Calendar
The Orange Light
