CAGE | Bertoia by CAGE

Where does a line begin? How does a thought originate? When is a sound a noise? When is it a note? An idea? A memory? Who joins us in creative discovery and effort? And who remains apart?

This recording is the product of many unpredictable intersections of people, things, ideas, and sensations.

CAGE— Taylan Cihan (d. 2014), Kevin Ernste, Tim Feeney, Annie Lewandowski, and Chris Miller—were strangers to me in 2011, when the group was formed. But in that same year, plans were taking shape in my mind for the Sound + Vision exhibition at Cornell’s Johnson Museum of Art, featuring “sounding” or “tonal” sculptures created by the multifaceted artist Harry Bertoia. CAGE conducted musical performances with his tonal sculptures during the semester-long run of the exhibition, and for some time afterward. The collaboration culminated with recording sessions in 2015—the centennial of Bertoia’s birth.

Bertoia described some of his own sounding techniques in this way: “One can touch the top of a sculpture gently, or bang it together loudly. Or they can be rubbed below to create a different kind of sound. The rod sculptures, that have a thick cylinder on top, can be pushed together to make a bell-like sound.”

In the course of their own interactions with the tonals, CAGE drew new sounds, notes, and noises from the pieces—engaging with them mentally and physically. You will hear CAGE patting the sculptures. Massaging them. Twisting the rods. Drumming the hollow wooden base beneath them. Teasing, testing, and shocking them. Relaxing them. Emoting with them. In dialogue with them.

The Johnson’s sounding sculptures resemble tall grasses in appearance, and—despite their regimental fixedness in square bases of heavy brass plate—are uncannily lifelike, especially when given voice. They may quietly announce themselves with the passing of a gentle breeze, sigh when caressed, or grumble when agitated.

Bertoia once mused: “The sounds [come] from I don’t know where . . . they come from the depths of the earth
. . . I don’t know. But they profoundly attracted my attention and I think I will remain with them and continue . . . towards where? Until I achieve the point where I feel simply sufficient . . . if that ever comes.”

The sounds remain with me, too: When I’m crossing the Cornell Arts Quad in late December, and hear the shivering of the dry, brown oak leaves, stubbornly clinging to the trees, the sounds of 2012 are with me. When the foil vertebrae of the baseboard radiators in our home ping and tick and wake me in the night, the sounds of Taylan’s memorial service are with me. And when the crated sculptures are carefully returned to storage, and one or another of them titters mischievously inside its cozy plywood crate, I know that—in days to come—other sounds, other thoughts, lines, ideas, and collaborators will attract my attention. Or yours. And remain.

Matt Conway
Ithaca, 2018

CAGE is a performing ensemble dedicated to freely improvised music that formed at Cornell University in 2011. It is defined less by instrumentation than by a commitment to listening and the collective exploration of sound. Its current members are Kevin Ernste, Annie Lewandowski, and Christopher J. Miller. Former key members include Tim Feeney and the late Taylan Cihan.