Metaphonics Book Launch and music

Colliding black holes, whispering caves, melting glaciers, and exploding volcanoes. These are some of the things you will hear as Field Works launch their new book, Metaphonics. Readings are accompanied by projected video and live music. Copies of the book will be available for purchase.

For Stuart Hyatt, the world itself is a recording studio where people, places, and things become the instruments. Hyatt has spent the last four years collecting these sounds and arranging them into uniquely site-responsive music. Working collaboratively under the name Field Works, musicians from around the world have contributed over 50 new compositions to this massive collection.

In Metaphonics: The Field Works Listener’s Guide, Hyatt contributes a complete track-by-track guide to the 7-album Field Works box set, addressing from many angles the interpretation of place through sound. Renowned naturalist Bernie Krause writes the book’s foreword, establishing a taxonomy of the soundscapes explored in the book’s essays: geophony (earth sounds), biophony (animal sounds), anthropophony (human sounds) and cosmophony (sounds from outer space). Designed by PRINTtEXT, the book features original contributions from Cheryl Tipp, Leah Barclay, Gustavo Valdivia, Enrique Ramirez, Yiorgis Sakellariou, Sarah Laskow, Stuart Fowkes, Budhaditya Chattopadhyay, Manuja Waldia and Peter Liversidge.

This event will feature readings by Hyatt, Yiorgis Sakellariou, and Stuart Fowkes. Live soundtrack and film by musicians Bob Hoffnar and Joseph Terrana. Janneane and Benjamin Blevins will share the book’s design. Peter Liversidge will unveil a new work made specifically for this event. Sandra Boss will present The Acoustic Appraiser. Jez Riley French will perform a sonic lecture. The evening will conclude with a special musical performance in complete darkness by Sakellariou.