Sound Art

about SoundCrawl:Nashville Picture a Saturday night in Nashville when all the galleries are open. Beautiful people, drinks in hand, drift from one gallery to another to experience the best the city has to offer in visual art.

Now imagine that at various points along the way something new has been added, an opportunity to experience a new kind of art, art that you HEAR....sound art.

So in between the experience of the visual arts, artists and guests alike gather to listen to....a rhythmic beat of water drops....or a dizzying immersion of the sound of coins moving through space...synthetic audio wrapping around, tickling the ear drums of the city.

That evening is coming to Nashville on October 3, from 6-9pm, with SoundCrawl:Nashville.

For the first time ever, Nashville will introduce a sound art festival in conjunction with the city's monthly Art Crawl. On October 3 Nashvillians will be among the first in the nation to experience a festival of this type, an international festival bringing new compositions from all over the world.

Where better to introduce this than Music City.



about the ArtCrawl: (from www.artatthearcade.com):Every first Saturday of the month, the historic Arcade in downtown Nashville comes to life with over one thousand visitors. Multiple galleries open their doors to avid art lovers as well as anyone else that is just curious to see what the Gallery Crawl is all about. Art at the Arcade is a collective organization that hosts an assortment of contemporary artists from throughout the world to Nashville.



about SoundArt: What is Sound Art? Between 1930 and 1965, composer Edgard Varèse gave a series of lectures that have since been collected and titled “The Liberation of Sound.” In these lectures, Varese was trying to understand – and explain – his own approach to sonic expression. He, along with Pierre Schaeffer and others, began to explore the organization of sonic materials – sounds from the ambient world, evolving electronic technology, and the traditional instruments used for centuries– in any and every combination into cohesive works of audio art on phonograph (and then tape, and now computer).

The only definition that seemed to fit his music was simply: “organized sound.”

This definition has been given several labels through the years: musique concrète (in the French, Varèse and Schaeffer’s native tongue), electroacoustic music, sound collage, sound music, sound art, etc., etc. Some of these labels focus on very specific types of audio used. Some do not. Each one, however, is all encompassing of sound. Any sound. That has been organized in some way.

It’s a pretty broad definition.

The cultural and mechanical forces that influenced Varèse and Schaeffer have only become more powerful in the intervening years. With the advent of the computer and audio software, the production possibilities of sound organization – something that this town knows a bit about - seem endless. This power has brought with it technological ubiquity – computers are everywhere – and with ubiquity has come the commonplace, and with the commonplace comes the ability to focus not only on the medium (the technology used) but also on the expression (the art of the sounds used). And has changed the art of sound as we know it.

So what is sound art?

Sound \'saund\: the sensation perceived by the sense of hearing

Art \'ärt\: the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects

Sound Art \'saund ' ärt\: The conscious use of skill and creative imagination in producing aesthetic sensations perceived by the sense of hearing.

Sound. Collage. Expression. Audio. Organization. Consciousness. Creativity. Music. Art.



about the Directors: Kyle J. Baker and Aaron Hoke Doenges


Kyle J. Baker is a composer and creator in Nashville, Tennessee. While thoughtful and quick-witted in person, Kyle's raw, rhythmic and cacaphonic music turns the classical idiom on its ear. When not orchestrating cacaphony Kyle dreams up new experiences drawing on his background in theatre and interest in disruptive innovation. His music can be found at kylejbaker.com; his ideas can be found at thinkingcreator.net.








Aaron Hoke Doenges is an electroacoustic composer based in Nashville, Tennessee. While influences ranging from J.S. Bach and Arnold Schoenberg to John Cage, Edgard Varese', Jonty Harrison, Radiohead and Sigur Ros are present in Doenges’ approach to music, he blends his unique electroacoustic style through a collage of aural pictures. He explores through listening, writing and musical experimentation, searching the world around him for thoughts, sounds and melodies that can be pieced together in ways to provoke attention, thought and perhaps dialog. Music and other info can be found at www.aaronhokedoenges.com.