On Thursday evening at Donald Judd’s 15 untitled works in concrete, musicians set up their instruments next to concrete boxes taller than they are. They are getting ready to rehearse for Unset, a new piece by Sounds Modern, which will experiment with the reverberative properties of Judd’s blocks.
Directed by Elizabeth McNutt, the performance is on Saturday, August 1st, at 8pm, at the Chianti Foundation. Unset is composed by the assistant director, Andrew May. It’s a site specific work created specifically for the works in concrete, using fifteen musicians, eight computers, and drums. There’s opportunities for audience participation as well.
Trombone player Freddy Ouellette describes the experience:
"The sound just bounces around so much. It's just like a-- I don't even really know how to describe it. It's an amplifying feeling, you know if you bring a mic closer to the speaker, it makes a feedback sound. It's just like that, except with an extremely loud instrument, the trombone. It'll be an interesting work, I think."
The musicians come together to rehearse in a circle. On Saturday, they’ll be as far as a kilometer apart, with audiences experiencing, and contributing to the music, while exploring Judd’s art.
For Marfa Public Radio, Katherine Rae Mondo at the Chinati Foundation.