Recorded with Ensemble Decipher: Joseph Bohigian, Chris Hadley, Nathan Hudson, Howie Kenty, Chelsea Loew, Niloufar Nourbakhsh, Ben Ramey
The hum of immediate concerns. Dinner. When? Hopes and plans. Something you’re awaiting. Loans. The future. Childhood. Traffic. Really? Strange memories. Appliances. How the toy broke. Fears and failings. Your arms. Persistent low-grade worries. Consideration of self. Dinner. Why? Consideration of others. The people of Mali. Who is a part of you? When you were silenced. Something you hope will never happen. The people of Iceland. Their lungs. Treatment of others. When were you true? When were you silent? When were you silent?
“When Were You Silent?” explores its subject matter in ways both humorous and affecting. It gives the performers the challenge of expressing personal experiences ranging from mundane to difficult, contributing many of their own phrases as directed by prompts. It can be performed by anybody willing to participate, using only a laptop with built-in speakers and the Max/MSP patch, and will be different with each performance and each group of performers.
Also check out "Why Can't I Ever Get What I Want? (When Were You Silent? v2.0)", a different iteration of the piece focusing more on our needs, desires, and complaints, with a noisier texture, recorded live with Imoni Cole-Palmer and Eric Hertenstein:
https://youtu.be/43dhESCG_Kk
