recorded live at Northwestern University 04.09.17
performed by Hear::Say Carl Alexander, Gabrielle Barkidjija, Dimitri German, Sam Grosby, Jackie Kerns, Kevin Krasinski, Frank Laucerica, Anna Lea Ucik, Kevin Vondrak
recorded by: Luis Fernando Amaya
(2017) "Let's consider the multiple senses in which our mouth is a filter. It is the opening of the human digestive filter. It is the opposite end of the human language filter. It is also a harmonic filter, where changing the shape of the mouth increases or minimizes the amplitude of different frequencies. Our bodies constantly perform uncountable, unknowable actions. Baleen invites participants to slow down and consider these actions.
Baleen can be performed by trained vocalists, but it can also be performed by anyone interested in exploring their own voice. It can be performed for an audience, or it can be performed alone. As a piece of music, Baleen exists as a way for audiences to experience the process of speech in slow motion. As a contemplative tool, it helps performers to focus on the actions of their own body. Ideally, this results in a heightened sense of body awareness and all of the strange acoustical properties that define spoken words.
