Lea Bertucci will release her Resonant Field LP via NNA Tapes on July 19th. Following up on her critically acclaimed 2018 LP Metal Aether, Bertucci returns for another site-specific electro-acoustic adventure. Interested in the exploration of physical space through sound, the upcoming effort was initially recorded at Silo City in Buffalo, New York.
Once the site of the Marine A Grain Elevator, the now decommissioned site is an abandoned, cavernous space filled with large cast concrete cylinders approximately 18 feet wide and 130 feet tall. Using her alto sax to “awaken” the now empty space, the musician’s improvised recordings were then augmented in the studio using sound processing, tape manipulation, field recordings, and additional collaborative instrumentation.
Recorded during a partial solar eclipse in 2017, like much of Lea Bertucci’s work, Resonant Field is imbued with an air of ritual–if by ritual we mean “a set of actions performed according to a prescribed order.” Here, the “actions” would be her improvised playing and the “prescribed order” would be “at this place and at this time.” In addition, the sound artist seems to approach her location with a technical understanding of how its physical space might impact her sound; for instance, here at the grain silo, the large physical dimensions and shape of the structure create 12 seconds of natural decay.
That’s just one side of the equation, though. Aleister Crowley once defined Magick as “the science and art of creating brain change.” Bertucci’s interest in how acoustics affect our experience of sound, and her site-specific ritualized explorations of these spaces, might be seen as the “science” side; but the composer’s work is way more than a recorded set of data points. By using her breath and instrument in open communication with the space she inhabits, Bertucci brings a personalized and artful dimension to her work. On Resonant Field, it yields a profound meditation on “beauty, emptiness, and the deep melancholy of forgotten spaces.”
