Download From MoMA to the Hop: Composer brings sound installations to both

From MoMA to the Hop:
Composer brings sound installations to both venues this fall
Photo: (L-R) Tristan Perich, Todd Meehan, Doug Perkins. Courtesy of the artists.
HANOVER, NH—On Saturday, August 10, New York’s Museum of Modern Art opens Soundings: A
Contemporary Score (through November 3), its first major exhibition of “sound art.” The exhibit presents
work by 16 of the most innovative contemporary artists working with sound, with pieces ranging from
architectural interventions, to visualizations of otherwise inaudible sound, to an exploration of how sound
ricochets within a gallery, to a range of field recordings—including echolocating bats, abandoned buildings in
Chernobyl, 59 bells in New York City, and a sugar factory in Taiwan.
One of the 16 is Brooklyn-based
composer Tristan Perich (whose
work The Wall Street Journal said is
"intense, hypnotic force and a
surprising emotional depth”),
represented by his Microtonal Wall
(2011), composed of 1,500 tiny
speakers, each playing a single
microtonal frequency, collectively
spanning four octaves across 25 feet.
It has previously been displayed in
Norway and Toronto.
In September, the Hop presents an
exhibit of Perich’s sound and nonsound installations in the new “Hop
Garage” rehearsal and exhibition space, across the corridor from the Hop Box Office and Courtyard Café. The
title and description of the piece will be announced later. The installation is free and open to the public on
Tuesday, September 24 through Thursday, September 26, noon to 8 pm, and on Friday, September 27, noon
to 4 pm.
Pieces in the Hop show include work in which the mechanized world subtly interacts with the human: Drawing
Machine, a pen-on-paper drawing executed during the exhibit by a simple machine Perich programs; 5 Linear
Constructions, a work for video; Breathing Portraits, speakers that react to subaudible waveforms, capturing
the movement of their subjects' breathing patterns during sleep; and 1-Bit Symphony, a five-movement
electronic composition recorded on a single microchip that literally "performs" its music live when turned on,
through a headphone jack.
Also on September 27, at 10 pm in the Garage, the Hop presents the Meehan/Perkins Duo (including former
Dartmouth Music faculty member Doug Perkins on percussion) performing Perich’s composition Parallels.
The performance is free and open to the public; seating is very limited.
Perich's work is inspired by the aesthetic simplicity of math, physics and code. WIRE Magazine describes his
compositions as "an austere meeting of electronic and organic." He studied math, computer science and music
composition as an undergraduate at Columbia University and received an MA from the Interactive
Telecommunications Program at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. In 2004 he released 1-Bit
Music, an electronic circuit carefully arranged in a CD case with a headphone jack on its spine. Using
rudimentary hand-programmed electronics, he made the 40-minute music composition as a means of
investigating the foundations of digital sound. 1-Bit Music, was the first album ever released as a microchip,
programmed to synthesize his electronic composition live. His latest circuit album, 1-Bit Symphony
(Cantaloupe, 2010), has received critical acclaim and was called "sublime" (New York Press). His awardwinning work coupling 1-bit electronics with traditional forms in both music (Active Field, Observations) and
visual art (Machine Drawings, Microtonal Wall) has been presented around the world, from Sonar and Ars
Electronica to the Whitney Museum and bitforms gallery.
RELEVANT LINKS
Tristan Perich website
Perich at the Hop
MoMA exhibit, Soundings: A Contemporary Score
Meehan/Perkins Duo
Perich pieces at the Hop: Drawing Machine, 5 Linear Constructions, Breathing Portraits and 1-Bit
Symphony
Download high-resolution photos
CALENDAR LISTINGS:
Sound Installation by Tristan Perich
Best known for musical works ("intense, hypnotic force and a surprising emotional depth”—Wall Street
Journal) that literally perform themselves through sound-producing microchip technology in CD jewel cases,
Tristan Perich also is among 16 artists in the first major exhibition of “sound art” of a sound installation
exhibit at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, August-November. His creative residency at the Hop features
interactive works in the Hop Garage.
Tuesday-Thursday, September 24-26, noon to 8 pm; Friday, September 27, noon-4 pm
Hop Garage, Hopkins Center for the Arts, Hanover NH
Free admission
Information: Hopkins Center Box Office, 603.646.2422 or hop.dartmouth.edu
Meehan/Perkins Duo Performs Tristan Perich
The percussion duo of Todd Meehan and Doug Perkins performs Tristan Perich’s 50-minute composition
Parallels. Very limited seating.
Friday, September 27, 10 pm
Hop Garage, Hopkins Center for the Arts, Hanover NH
Free admission
Information: Hopkins Center Box Office, 603.646.2422 or hop.dartmouth.edu
* * *
Founded in 1962, the Hopkins Center for the Arts is a multi-disciplinary academic, visual and performing
arts center dedicated to uncovering insights, igniting passions, and nurturing talents to help Dartmouth and
the surrounding Upper Valley community engage imaginatively and contribute creatively to our world. Each
year the Hop presents more than 300 live events and films by visiting artists as well as Dartmouth students
and the Dartmouth community, and reaches more than 22,000 Upper Valley residents and students with
outreach and arts education programs. After a celebratory 50th-anniversary season in 2012-13, the Hop
enters its second half-century with renewed passion for mentoring young artists, supporting the
development of new work, and providing a laboratory for participation and experimentation in the arts.
CONTACT:
Rebecca Bailey, Publicity Coordinator/Writer
Hopkins Center for the Arts, Dartmouth College
[email protected]
603.646.3991