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Chris Kallmyer

Circles Circling

-86.189339, 39.826885

Created for the 2015 Equinox at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Circles Circling was performed live under “Align,” a work by Type A on September 19, 2015. Kallmyer, known internationally for his clever investigations of soundscapes, creates scenarios that generate unique musical encounters. This piece was scored with 1,000 live crickets existing freely in the park that are attuned to the changing light of the seasons and therefore have a more intense experience during the Equinox than humans. As a guitarist, Kallmyer engages with the sounds of crickets through the creation of an improvised circular music technique. Circles Circling makes transparent the process of collecting the sound of 1,000 crickets by using two high-fidelity microphones. What results is a track of amplified crickets attuned to the movement of the cosmic spheres that invoke the complexity of the universe that is then accompanied by circular sounds created on the guitar. Circling Circles draws attention to the mystery of the invisible spheres cosmic events, the passage of time, and the poetics of crickets.

• Duration: 10:15

• Year: 2016

• Commissioned by: Newfields (formerly the Indianapolis Museum of Art)