SUMMARY

1. ENVIRONMENTAL AESTHETICS

2. KHA VARIATIONS

3. NEW RELEASE

4. NEW FROM INFREQUENCY

5. FEATURED RELEASES

Header photo by Yann Novak

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1. ENVIRONMENTAL AESTHETICS

Installation and site-specific sound compositions from the 2007 Satsop Residency

Receptions Jan. 9th, 7 – 9pm and Jan. 12th, 7 – 9pm

Seattle, WA— OKOK Gallery proudly welcomes arts collective Environmental Aesthetics as it presents three site-specific sound compositions from its inaugural Satsop Residency Program.

In 2006 Environmental Aesthetics founders Gabe Bacon and Paul Schrag were granted access to Satsop Development Park, which operates on the site of a would-be nuclear power facility in Elma, Wa. In the late 1970s, Satsop was a component of the largest nuclear power plant construction project in U.S. history. The project comprised plans for five nuclear power reactors to be built in Hanford, and Elma WA, located 25 miles west of the state capitol. The project was cancelled after the budget swelled into the billions and nuclear energy fell out of favor with the general public. At the time of the cancellation, construction of the Satsop site was near completion. 

Today, massive remnants of the project remain, including Cooling Tower No. 5, which was selected as the site of the Environmental Aesthetics residency program. The concrete tower rests beside the Chehalis River, rising nearly 500 feet in the air, its 15-foot-thick concrete wall encircling four acres of grass covered soil. To date, the structure has remained gated and largely unused. The Satsop Residency aims to reinterpret this epic monument as a sublime environment with the potential to function as an all encompassing artistic medium, emphasizing the interplay between site-specific sonic art, seemingly obsolete industrial architecture and the natural environment.

The three artists awarded the first annual Satsop Residency include: Seattle artist Yann Novak, Olympia artist Myello, and Olympia quartet Problems. In September 2007, the artists were invited interpret the tower sonically. The artists used on-site recordings to produce sound compositions representative of their individual responses to the tower’s form and acoustic qualities. These compositions and an accompanying sculptural installation will be presented at Ballard’s OKOK Gallery.

About Environmental Aesthetics:

Environmental Aesthetics was established in 2005 by Gabriel Bacon and Paul Schrag.  The organization aims to foster the reinterpretation and re-contextualization of particular human and natural environments by initiating shifts in accepted historical and conventional classifications. 

 About The Artists:

 Yann Novak is a Seattle based sound artist and founder of Dragon’s Eye Recordings. Novak uses field recordings and digital manipulation to produce compositions.  These works offer Novak’s interpretation of the emotional effect of specific physical environments and emphasize the expressive nature of time and place.

Problems is an Olympia based group composed of Ian Ackerman, Joe Kuta, Warren Lee and Gabe Will. Through sound, the group actively collaborates and engages with the specific interiors in which their compositions take form. Focusing on sustained tones and the phantom melodies that arise within them, they expose microstructures and rich polyforms found within sustained pitch.

Myello is Olympia based composer Daniel Farrell. Farrell identifies his works as non-narrative associative sound poems, which are strongly informed by Surrealist philosophies and compositional strategies. Using significant and familiar sounds, and digital manipulation, Farrell’s compositions aspire to invoke the ecstatic nature of the human spirit against the backdrop of what he describes as the technological totality.

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2. KHA VARIATIONS

Live Sound and Video Installation by Kamran Sadeghi Receptions

Jan. 12th, 7 – 9pm and Jan. 19th, 7 – 9pm

Seattle, WA— OKOK Gallery proudly welcomes Seattle artist and experimental composer Kamran Sadeghi for a special one evening performance and installation. Sadeghi will be debuting two new animations that aim to manifest visual representations of the accompanying live sound performances.

The impermanent nature of sound has inspired Sadeghi to seek ways in which to manipulate its degrees of sensory tangibility. This performance will present Sadeghi’s interpretation of the transitory nature of sound through two distinct performances. The animations included in these performances are part of Sadeghi’s ongoing “Kha Series.” “Kha” is an ancient mathematical Indian term meant to denote “zero” and in certain contexts “void.” Sadeghi custom designs each animation by assigning a range of visual responses to sound. These designated visual gestures evoke influences ranging from color field paintings, typography, and architecture, manifesting what Sadeghi describes as “a symbiosis of sound and light, space and sound.” Sadeghi’s current body of work attempts to externalize sound’s embedded information through visual mapping and construction, and to conversely internalize visual environments through sound.

About The Artist:

Kamran Sadeghi was born in Esfahan, Iran. He is a composer working in digital audio, electroacoustic music, environmental field recordings, and video. His compositions have been selected to premier in the WPA\C's Experimental Media series Exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art / Armand Hammer Auditorium in DC. He has performed and released numerous recordings under the moniker Son of Rose for Seattle label Dragon’s Eye Recordings. His work has been reviewed in numerous publications including The Wire, Signal To Noise, and e/i. He currently resides in Seattle

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3. NEW RELEASE

YANN NOVAK | In Residence

Dragon's Eye Recordings is proud to announce the release of In Residence by Yann Novak. In Residence is the final product of three artist residencies Novak attended in the fall of 2007. From each residency a composition was born, compiled here based on their thematic similarities. On In Residence, Novak explores the feelings of isolation some artists experience while working in solitary conditions for long stretches of time. Novak utilized this time to push his process to the limit by abstracting his source materials beyond recognition. The result is a lonely sound world with distant sounds passing by, while the entire piece quivers with anticipation.

Special thanks to The Espy Foundation, Environmental Aesthetics & Kasini House.

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de5014 | duration: 43:00 | format: 5" cd | edition: 250/250 | AVAILABLE JANUARY 2008

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4. NEW FROM INFREQUENCY

DROUIN + OLSEN | NO(H) MOVEMENT

DVD-R | INFREQUENCY 002 | Edition of 100

A collaboration with Lance Olsen, NO(H) MOVEMENT is a 15min film with two distinct soundtracks, one by each artist. NO(H) MOVEMENT is a study in suspension - the figure caught in a sustained physical gesture, with the only movement coming from involuntary muscle activity and fatigue.

NO(H) MOVEMENT is an open region NTSC format DVD-R.

Price $18 | shipping included | available January 2008






ANFIELD + OLSEN | CHIAROSCURIOUS BLUES

CD-R | INFREQUENCY 003 | Edition of 250

Developed from a stream-of-consciousness studio session between Thomas Anfield and Lance Olsen, CHIAROSCURIOUS BLUES is a convergence of field recording, electric guitar, odd utterances, and acoustic instruments.

Price $16 | shipping included | available January 2008









DROUIN + NOVAK | AUDITORIUM MUTEK

CD-R | INFREQUENCY 004 | Edition of 250

Live recording of the critically acclaimed performance AUDITORIUM at Montreal's MUTEK Festival in June 2007.

Price $16 | shipping included | available January 2008

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5. FEATURED RELEASE