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Audium 9
By nick g | July 21, 2009
I held my head with my hands between my knees and felt like I was dying. I was seeing my life flash before my eyes, or rather hearing it flash before my ears. All the sounds I had just experienced, which felt like a life well-lived, were coming back. Just as I became comfortable, just as I let myself go, let my mind shut up for five minutes and let me just be in that moment without the realization of the universe around me, everything collapsed. I sunk into a black hole.
This is what it feels like at the end of Audium 9, a new work composed in November for the San Francisco sound space of the same name. The composer, Stan Shaff, stands at the entrance to Audium and explains the current work. To him, it’s mostly about memory, he says with a shrug. The audience, mostly first timers at Audium, nod and foolishly think they are ready for what’s about to be experienced. There is no way in hell you could be prepared for Audium on your first visit.
Audium is a 178-speaker sound space. The composition is a combination of tape playback and spatial placement. As Shaff explained to the audience of about 50 in the lobby after the performance, he records all the sounds from the living world or composes them either with a synthesizer or traditional instruments. Then he plays them through Audium, and the performance each night is his placement and intensity of the recording through the 178 speakers.
Sitting in absolute pitch darkness with a few dozen strangers is weird enough, but sitting through Audium can really freak people out. I’ve seen people leave in the middle of it, and many times people fidget and shuffle their belongings.
Oh yeah, I’ve been four times, but tonight was the first time I went alone. It’s a completely different experience when you’re not burdened with thinking of something clever to say afterward. It’s much more introspective. I suggest going a second or third time alone, but the first time should certainly be with a friend.
He said it was about memories. I felt it that too in a sad sort of way. The sounds included a water theme trickling, rushing, pulsating throughout at times with bits of different types of bands here and there, children laughing and talking, words spoken by Shaff like “gluon, tackyon” and “It’s Hubble’s Bubble,” among the blips and beeps and pulsating bass noises. One of my favorite sounds was the splashing of a cannonball jump into a pool. The bass of the water filling the void left by the initial breaking of the surface tension was bone-shaking.
The performance is divided into two halves, each about 30 minutes in length. The five-minute intermission is dimly-lit and the audience has not moved much each time I’ve attended. This time they did not move at all. No talking, no shuffling. It was serene.
The second half brought new sounds and more intensity. The end brought back many memorable sounds, like “Hubble’s Bubble” and the more familiar blips and bleeps. They kept getting faster and Shaff spread them out masterfully around the room.
This is about the time everything goes black and you feel like sucking your thumb.
While the dim lights slowly returned, I remained in my deathlike coma. Thoughts began to fill the black hole, and I began to feel human again. No longer floating in space as Shaff came to the entrance from his performance space on the other side of the room and thanked us for being such a reflective, receptive audience.
This completely unique experience is well worth the $15 cover charge. It’s been just sold out nearly every time I’ve been, and you can’t buy tickets in advance. Box office opens at 8:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights, the nights of the performance, and closes promptly at 8:15. The show starts at 8:30 and lasts just over an hour. There’s plenty of time to grab a drink on nearby Polk Street afterward. And you’ll need it.
July 29th, 2009 at 10:07 am
****UPDATE****
This is a response from Stan Shaff, composer/creator of Audium:
“Nick,
I thoroughly enjoyed your review.
Many thanks for your interest.
Stan Shaff
Audium”
wow. way to go, nick.
August 3rd, 2009 at 7:53 am
I really like your blog and i respect your work. I’ll be a frequent visitor.