Cicadas of the Sea | annenewsite

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Currently based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Cicadas of the Sea is a chamber ensemble dedicated to performing experimental works of our time. Through interdisciplinary collaboration, Cicadas of the Sea strive to engage audiences in a spacious sound world combining music, visual art, and text. As improvisers, composers, and chamber musicians, Cicadas of the Sea is Adrianne Pope (violin), Chris Sies (percussion) and Ben Willis (bass). The three members create dynamic interpretations of works utilizing conventional notation, graphic scores, and improvisation.

Using a combination of bowed strings and percussion, Cicadas of the Sea presents Amanda Schoofs' graphic and poetic score "You Burn Us". The poetic performance instructions are derived from cutups of Jorie Graham and Sappho. Amanda Schoofs writes, "You Burn Us is a visual representation of sound that deconstructs traditional forms of musical notation, or sometimes develops new representation of sound, in order to achieve equilibrium between composition and spontaneity in performance. . .Through experimenting with painting, writing, printmaking, xerography, typography, and digital practices I pushed the ideas of theme, repetition, and variation to their extremes".