BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
“When the clock strikes 12, I’ll begin my 24-hour odyssey. Time will tell if I make it through.”
Composer Julian Day will bring organ project The Weight of Air to the Hobart Town Hall, activating the chamber of space with vibrant sounds. The muso and ABC broadcaster chats with us ahead of his incredible feat of endurance, which will begin on January 21 for Mofo.
What is the concept behind The Weight of Air?
The Weight of Air is literally about air. This is a field that I’ve researched for some years now – it was the subject of my MFA at Sydney College of the Arts. In much of my sound work, I try to shift the emphasis away from the objects that make the sound to what happens next. Here I’m focusing less on the organ, despite its remarkable sculptural quality, and more on its ability to sculpt the room as an expansive chamber of air. You could view this as activating the hall’s invisible or ‘negative’ space. This plays out in long slow-motion chords that create vibrant effects in the air as the sound swirls about you. The title refers not only to the density of the air but also to way in which I generate the long tones by placing heavy weights upon the keys.
How do you like listeners to interact with such a long work?
We’re emptying out the space, so that at whatever point in the day or night you arrive you can either wander about and listen or grab a cushion and let the sound wash over you. I really believe in giving you, the listener, the freedom to engage with my work how you want to. I’ve sat through enough endless classical concerts where I’ve felt restrained in my chair, unable to breathe freely let alone move, and I just don’t think that’s necessary for the experience. So I’m determined to offer a different listening environment.
Performing through the night presents a physical challenge for a soloist. You’re a composer – how important is it to consider the needs of the human presenting the music, compared with the musical or expressive needs of a work?
Writing a piece of music typically involves at least three people – the composer, the performer and the listener. I feel that you have a responsibility towards each person in that chain. That’s not to say you need to overly compromise your vision as a composer, but you need to at least be aware of what each person experiences. If you want a pianist to play endless fast runs, you need to realize how physically taxing that is. If you want a listener to sit stock-still for hours, you need to consider that they’ll start crossing their legs at some point, desperate for the loo. I’m not convinced you can divorce the physical aspects of a piece from its concept; to me they are conjoined.
Your installation project An Infinity Room, which The Weight of Air extends and develops, has been presented more than 40 times across the world. What have you learnt as an endurance artist throughout these performances?
An Infinity Room (the acronym is ‘air’) is a project I’ve directed since 2009. I lay out multiple identical synthesizers and use overlapping long tones to generate shimmering effects in the air. Playing for extended periods, like an hour or more, allows you to perceive and absorb through your body the subtle and not-so-subtle shifts in the air. For me, and I hope you, it’s a very meditative practice, like a mindfulness exercise. I find that time itself starts to warp – an hour feels like a minute and a day feels like an hour. You can hear some of my work on the album White On White (A Guide To Saints), which I released in 2016. Related to AIR is a series of sculptures in which I prop identical synthesizers apart, between walls or floors, using long metal poles. Sound perpetually billows from these taut assemblages into each space.
Why is the Hobart Town Hall – a somewhat traditional or conservative building – a terrific venue for your new site-responsive project?
Hobart has such a wealth of grandiose buildings that, from the outside, the Town Hall might seem relatively humble. But inside it’s a different story. The hall upstairs, with its meticulously restored detailing, is stunning. And it has brilliant acoustics, just like a classic European Baroque concert hall. It’s a large rectangle, which spreads the sound very evenly throughout, and allows the tones to take on their own life. The organ was built in London in 1870 and has a beautifully pure sound, as you’ll discover.
Parting words?
Yes, bring me coffee. And buy the record when it’s released.
See Julian Day present The Weight of Air in the Hobart Town Hall, kicking off at midnight on January 21. As part of Mofo, he’ll also perform Box Shaped Heart at 11am on January 20. More info mofo.net.au.
This interview featured in this month’s issue of Warp Magazine.
Image supplied: Felicity Jenkins.
