Live performance art is usually associated with acting in some form and if music is involved then we tend to expect a musical or opera or concert of some sort. But this is to deny that music is an art form which utilises sound in order to create a cultural experience. Beethoven’s work was originally critiqued as being “too lengthy, and the modulations in places far too strange”; “crude, wild, and with extraneous harmonies” and “obstreperous roarings of modern frenzy”. Yet a handful were full of admiration for his work. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Ben Frost creates a sound experience in the round. The audience sits inside the sound, in a small arena surrounded by huge speakers and centring on Frost working a desk which would give a sound techie both nightmares and exotic dreams. You not only hear the sounds, you feel them. The quality of the gear is such that your body registers all; there is little modulation of top and bottom notes. The waves of sound resonate through the body – at one time, my hair moved as the sound waves moved the very air around us. In the centre is Frost, moving barefooted along his desk, feeling the sound as he creates it.
The work defies genre. There are elements of punk and metal and classical but I am most strongly reminded of the soundscapes used to underscore games such as Final Fantasy and World of Warcraft. Of course, with no princes to act as patrons, modern day composers find employment in designing for games and film. (Frost’s most recent score was for Netflix series Dark).
Widening Gyre is grim. It is a soundscape for a world which is imploding; offering a notion that there is little restful or lovely anymore. As an experience it is physically as well as aurally demanding and may be strange and uncomfortable to those who are not audiophiles.
Ben Frost belongs to a music collective who are pushing the boundaries of art. His work does not have the common elements we are used to but it doesn’t have to. This work is not for everyone, just as Beethoven’s was not in the early stages of his career. But if there is one thing certain about all art, initial resistance gives way to appreciation with time.
Kate Stratford – On The Town
