Auditorium is a live sound collaboration between Seattle (Washington) artist Yann Novak and Victoria (British Columbia) artist Jamie Drouin. The two artists first met on a panel discussion hosted by Seattle’s 2006 Decibel Festival at the University of Washington's Henry Art Gallery, and both immediately recognized a connection between their two bodies of soundwork; using altered field recordings and sharing a mutual interest in exploring the ability of sound to alter the atmosphere of spaces we inhabit—physically and emotionally.

Two months later, the two artists met once again at the Henry Art Gallery to perform Auditorium, which uses the performance space itself as a sonic point of departure. Recordings made by Novak of the empty space were amplified and layered to create a singular, modulating drone which enhanced the particular ‘fingerprint’ of the space. Drouin’s approach was to define the space with a more scalpel-like hand, inserting sonic pings and rhythms which called attention to the depth and scale of the auditorium, and to interject more textural sounds which would occassionally push the listeners attention outside of the building, reminding them of the thin membrane between the inside/outside worlds.

Details: live sound recording made 18 October 2006 | 5" CD | 48:17 | Edition: 400 | 2007