“The breath of plants gives life to animals and the breath of animals gives life to plants. My breath is your breath, your breath is mine. It’s the great poem of give and take, of reciprocity that animates the world.” —Robin Wall Kimmerer, from Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants 

 

“Our world is a complex matrix of vibrating energy, matter and air, just as we are made of vibrations. Vibration connects us with all beings and connects us to all things interdependently.” —Pauline Oliveros, from Quantum Listening 

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Rehearsal for a Forest explores the relationship between abiotic and biotic entities by inviting audiences to consider our relations with water, waves, trees, the land. The earliest life was sparked from oceans and light energizing emergent self-organizing forms. This ancient photosynthesis knowledge was handed down to our local plant life, trees and forests who provide the air we breathe and the climate we depend on. For Rehearsal for a Forest, the Ensemble uses instruments hand-made from remnants and cast-offs of local trees and plants, combined with electroacoustic techniques, and improvisational approaches, to ask that we listen to trees for the sake of the forests.  

Rehearsal for a Forest was developed as a precursor to on-site interventionist performances with living ancient trees in at risk forests. 

 

Rehearsal for a Forest can be performed in a variety of venues.

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Branching Songs Ensemble:

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• Julie Andreyev, Tree-a-kin and Lightning Stick instruments 

• Simon Lysander Overstall, Tree-a-kin instrument, software programming 

• Keira Madsen, Tree Voice instrument 

• Myles V Feltenberger, Looper instrument 

• Giorgio Magnanensi, resonators + diffusion

 

The tree feelers were made by Lara Felsing and Julie Andreyev; the Voice Instrument was made by Giorgio Magnanensi and Simon Overstall

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Performances:

Rehearsal for a Forest has been performed at: The New Media Gallery, April 29, 2023

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