Work continues on a large-scale interdisciplinary, community-activated, art piece/installation featuring music, film and live performance. This piece, with the new title, All that remains: Residual Moments, is a collaboration between composer and pianist Frank Horvat, video artist Gunilla Josephson and Thin Edge New Music Collective.
All that remains: Residual Moments can be described as more of an exhibition than an event, more of a transformation of time and space than a concert, more of a unifying experience than an installation. This larger-than-life immersive sensory experience utilizes music, video imagery and human presence as the stage for the unveiling of our memories from childhood.
It will be presented with moving image, original instrumental music, live musicians and a designed soundscape.
The first phase of production saw members of Thin Edge filmed improvising musical fragments and in conversation with Gunilla talking about memories of childhood that have influenced their lives. This took place this past winter at The MPL – Film and Audio Studios, engineered by Mat Keselman. Our Director of Photography was Jason Ebanks.
In collaboration with writer Lewis DeSoto and artist/editor Lillian Ross-Millard, Gunilla began editing the visual material into a 60-minute, triptych format [3-part] film in France this summer. Gunilla and Lillian will complete all post production in Toronto this month.
Following Gunilla’s work, Frank will compose a soundtrack featuring a score combining live instrumentation for a quintet (flute-violin-cello-vibraphone-piano) with a fixed electronics part, including excerpts from some of the improvised elements recorded in the 1st phase. The final step in the process will be to present the work live in performance where musicians play along with the film (the same musicians appearing both in the film and live simultaneously). Rather than in a traditional concert setting, this will be presented in a large open-space art gallery, like a live art showing or installation. The musicians will be in the middle of the room playing along with Gunilla’s film that will be projected around the room on different walls/surfaces. The audience will be free to walk about, stand, sit or lie down in any part of the outside circumference of the room.
As we see other people recounting their memories, our own memories are evoked and we understand the commonality of human experiences and are transported into an atmosphere that offers release and liberation from memories that subconsciously continually loop in our minds.
The hope is to have this initial 1-hr version presented in Spring 2023. Following that, the goal is to then find partners to produce a 12-hour version of the work involving more interviews with more musicians.
Many thanks to the Canada Council for the Arts | Conseil des arts du Canada and the Ontario Arts Council – Conseil des arts de l’Ontario for their support.
