Music for The Never Quartet

an installation for a quartet of four

bowed acoustic guitars by Michael Morley

Sunday July 14th

Afternoon, Dusk, Night

4:30pm – 6:30pm – 8:30pm

free and open to the public

with special performances by Electric Sound Bath & CGRSM

Black Editions and Human Resources Los Angeles present the U.S. premiere of The Never Quartet, a new sound installation piece by Michael Morley.

Michael Morley is a New Zealand based sound artist and visual artist. His work across a range of genre confirms his abilities as an artist, composer, improvisor, performer, and producer. Responsible for over 100 audio releases from 1985 to 2019 as: Gate, The Dead C, The Righteous Yeah, The Fuck Chairs, Sun Valley, and many other collaborations and solo recordings. The development of Music for The Never Quartet has come from a thirty year exploration of the guitar and of sound as art.

Music for The Never Quartet seeks to employ the resonating qualities of wooden acoustic guitars placed upon items of wooden furniture to reveal connections between time and space by sonically activating the instruments and the other wooden objects within architectural structures. Tonal drones are produced by acoustic guitars placed on the top of solid wooden furniture. The tones are generated in the guitars using electronic bows that are placed upon the steel guitar strings.

During the installation the audience will be encouraged to record and playback loops of the quartet on their personal mobile devices so as to contribute to the composition and performance in real-time.

The installation will be activated for three 1-hour intervals. Between these intervals there will be special performances featuring:

ELECTRIC SOUND BATH 

Los Angeles-based duo comprised of Ang Wilson (modular synthesizer and singing bowls) and Brian Griffith (bass guitar and electronics). Inspired by the sound baths made famous by the Integratron, ESB uses singing bowls, as well as electric instrumentation to create similarly dense wombs of sound that envelop the listener.

&

CGRSM

Los Angeles artists Christopher Reid Martin and Gabie Strong combine forces as CGRSM to create long form drone music, focusing on harmonic sensory inundations to render spirited body resonances. The duo traditionally use a variety of electronic instrumentations, relying mainly on amplified guitars. For this performance, the duo will play accordion and harmonium to explore the spatial conditions of vibrational acoustics.