Andrew O’Connor présente un paysage sonore in situ composé, en relation avec l’océan à 4 canaux. L’artiste exploite la capacité de l’océan d’être parfois tranquille et sereine, et intense et terrifiante à d’autres instants. S’inspirant des paroles de l’artiste Patti Smith et de la composition Become Ocean du compositeur américain John Luther Adam, cette œuvre sonore immersive à multicanaux explore la dualité de l’océan à la fois paisible et furieuse. La pièce est constituée d’enregistrements réalisés par la NOAA (National Oceanic Agency of America) et d’échantillons de Become Ocean, transformés en vagues de drones et de divers types de sonorités, puis superposés dans un paysage sonore multidirectionnel qui suggère les courants, les marées et les ressacs qui se trouvent sous ce que nous voyons à la surface de l’océan. The waves were coming in like Arabian stallions gradually lapping into seahorses (les vagues arrivaient comme des étalons arabes lançant progressivement des hippocampes) est une tentative de représentation sonore de la grande puissance et de la beauté de l’océan à l’aide d’enregistrements de paysages sonores, de traitements numériques et de spatialisation sonore multicanal. A 4-channel soundscape composition about the ocean, its capacity to be both tranquil and serene one moment, and intensely terrifying the next. Drawing inspiration from the Patti Smith lyric the name comes from and John Luther Adam’s Become Ocean this immersive multi-channel composition explores the duality of the ocean as both peaceful and furious. Using recordings made by NOAA (National Oceanic Agency of America) and samples from Become Ocean, processed into waves of drone and sonority, then layered into a multi-directional soundscape inspired by the currents, tides and undertows that lay beneath what we see on the surface. “the waves were coming in like Arabian stallions gradually lapping into seahorses” is an attempt to sonically represent the great power and beauty the ocean holds using soundscape recordings, digital processing and multi-channel sound spatialization.
Andrew O’Connor is an independent radio producer, and sound artist based in Toronto. His work reflects an interest in sound, storytelling, and transmission, and explores these ideas through formal broadcast radio as well as installation art, sound design, and pirate radio. Andrew’s work has been featured across the CBC Radio network, syndicated internationally as well as featured in the Radiophrenia Festival at the Glasgow Centre for Contemporary Art, and the UK International Radio Drama Festival. O’Connor currently hosts and produces a weekly pirate radio show called DISCO 3000 on his long running, clandestine radio project Parkdale Pirate Radio. O’Connor’s work in radio dates back some twenty years, and has extended beyond standard broadcast radio into gallery pieces, installations and sound design. This work has been presented at festivals across North America including Megapolis in Baltimore, the Third Coast Filmless Festival at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, the Vancouver New Music Festival, and at the Open Ears festival of Music and Sound. Through this work Andrew has been invited to be a visiting faculty member at the Banff Centre for the Arts, received a commission from the Klondike Institute for Art and Culture for their yearly thematic series The Natural & The Manufactured, helped create the award winning theater project BOBLO and had his work included in the anthology ‘Transmission Arts: Artists and Airwaves’ published in 2011.
