Revised Schedule and Online Events Announced for DARKNESS SOUNDING Festival

In response to the covid-19 pandemic, Wild Up has added new online events to the schedule for its winter festival, Darkness Sounding, and is delaying in-person performances originally scheduled for next month.

An online version of Odeya Nini's I See You, conceived as a series of one-on-one vocal performances through an Open Window, will stream on Friday, February 12 (5 pm PT / 8 pm ET). Likewise, a video version of Archie Carey's Desert Sound Visit, intended as a set of guided audio hikes in Joshua Tree, will stream on Saturday, February 13 (5 pm PT / 8 pm ET). Dates for the original, in-person versions of these limited-audience events will be announced at a future date, when there is a clearer timetable for reopening Los Angeles County.

Online versions of the Quick Response pieces by Marta Tiesenga, Eliza Bagg, and Christopher Rountree, intended as musical treasure hunts in natural settings around LA, will stream at dates to be announced.

The previously announced dates for Holland Andrews' There You Are (Jan. 26 - Feb. 7), Andrew McIntosh's A moonbeam is just a filtered sunbeam (Jan. 22 - 24), and Annie Saunders and Emma O'Halloran's Rest (Jan. 25), are unchanged. Tickets for all Darkness Sounding events are available through Wild Up's fan club at patreon.com/wildup. For as little as $5 per month, listeners receive access to all of the festival's events, plus all existing fan club content to date.

Says Christopher Rountree, Wild Up's Artistic Director and Conductor, "From the beginning, we've intended our plans for Darkness Sounding to be responsive to public health and the changing crisis in our country. While we all yearn to be out in public seeing and hearing and making art, we will present our socially distanced works when the Covid levels in LA are low enough for the lockdown to be lifted."

A revised schedule of upcoming events follows.

>> Tuesday, January 26 - Sunday, February 7, by appointment: Holland Andrews, vocals: There You Are

Sign-ups open via Wild Up fan club on Tuesday, January 19, 7 am PST / 10 am EST - first come, first served

There You Are is a series of micro-performances that take place over the phone. The performances were developed so each chosen participant can feel comfortable and intimately connected to a sound experience that was curated for that single individual as the "audience" at that moment.

Andrews, a vocalist and composer, has created a new work which will be emailed to each participant to be played in an available speaker or sound system in their home while Andrews calls them to sing and speak to them. The piece begins with a text message from the artist as an affirmation and invitation for each participant to set an intention for the performance catered to them individually.

>> Friday, January 22 (5:59 am PST + 5:11 pm PST)

Saturday, January 23 (5:58 am PST + 5:12 pm PST)

Sunday, January 24 (5:57 am PST + 5:13 pm PST): Andrew McIntosh, violin, viola, piano, electronics: A moonbeam is just a filtered sunbeam - world premiere

Says composer/performer McIntosh, "Moonbeam was created in 2020 out of improvisations on violin, viola, and piano that have been layered, edited, and electronically processed, with field recordings of the wind passing through Bristlecone pines, and a few sounds mixed in from my sample libraries of bowed cymbals, bowed wine glasses, and stones on slate. These six 'performances' of this forthcoming record will take place as previews of the near-final version of the album that are only available at sunrise and sunset over three days."

>> Monday, January 25 (5 pm PST / 8 pm EST): Annie Saunders + Emma O'Halloran: Rest concept film in partnership with EMPAC

Rest, an interactive performance installation, is a collaboration between experimental performance-maker Annie Saunders, composer Emma O'Halloran, Christopher Rountree and Wild Up. Rest looks at multi-sensory experience, the nature of consciousness, the suggestibility of the mind, 'dopamine fasting' and sensory deprivation. The piece gives a visceral opportunity to feel and consider what rest means in the modern world. Development and research will include interviews with consciousness experts to conversations with everyday folks talking about their earliest sense memories and their relationships with their smartphones.

>> Saturday, February 13 (5 pm PT - 8 pm ET): Archie Carey, composer + guide: Desert Sound Visit (online version) - world premiere

The audio track for this work, composed to accompany a guided hike in the Mojave, will be streamed online along with a first-person POV video of Carey on the walk. Sign-up details for the in-person version - first-come, first-served - will be announced at a later date.

>> Friday, February 12 (5 pm PT / 8 pm ET) Odeya Nini, vocals: I see you (online version) - world premiere

I see you was conceived as a series of private five-minute solo vocal performances for one household at a time, at a safe distance outside their home. For the online version, Nini will be filmed performing her piece through a doorway. Sign-up details for the in-person version - first-come, first-served - will be announced at a later date.

>> Dates TBA: Quick Response Shows by Marta Tiesenga, Eliza Bagg, and Christopher Rountree (online versions) - world premieres

Three composer/performers - Marta Tiesenga, Eliza Bagg, and Christopher Rountree - have created audio works that can be retrieved at different times in parks and other locations around Los Angeles via QR (Quick Response) codes on smartphones. Dates for both the online and in-person versions will be announced at a later date.

Further information on these events, along with bios of the composer/performers, can be found at darknesssounding.wildup.org.