Returning Current

featuring Katy Payne & Daniela Gesundheit

Part of the New World series

Doors 7pm / Concert 8pm

Tickets $25 Regular / $15 Member

$20 Advance at Soundscapes or musicgallery.org

Last May the Weird Canada Listening Salon reintroduced contemporary Music Gallery patrons to the two Interspecies Music recordings issued by the Music Gallery Editions label in the 1970s. The language of humpback whales combined with electronic elements to create music that was alien yet universal at the same time captivating the room.

Though environmental and interspecies music tends to be more celebrated on the West Coast of North America these forms of sonic research and enjoyment are global in their significance. Returning Current updates interspecies music making in an even more comprehensive fashion featuring Cornell University Bioacoustics researcher Katherine Payne.

This special encounter at the Music Gallery places Paynes stirring lecture about her findings about humpback whales and African elephants within an original musical context. Under Paynes tutelage Arts & Crafts recording artist Daniela Gesundheit Snowblink along with a choir of Toronto-based singers and instrumentalists will examine and illuminate the vocalizations of the largest living mammals to see what we might discover about group identity distance competition innovation and empathy.

The performance will be based in part on a lab-type workshop geared towards professional singers and improvisational instrumentalists. Ms. Payne will teach the principles structures and techniques of humpback whale song though several group sound experiments including but not limited to deep listening exercises with audio recordings garnered from her groundbreaking collection of field recordings with ex-husband Roger Payne Songs of the Humpback Whale and analyzing spectrograms of whale song through a musical rather than research-oriented lens. Along with these musical building blocks she will also expand on the various functions that whale song serves in whale culture. Gesundheit will aid in translating Paynes concepts and instructions into performance strategies.

Participants in this show include Anne Bourne Dan Goldman Alex Samaras Felicity Williams Robin Dann Doug Tielli Ivy Mairi Isla Craig Anne Bourne Ryan Brouwer Tova Kardonne and Alanna Stuart.