Sabisha Friedberg: Traversions

Sabisha Friedberg’s “Traversions” presents two multi-channel works which explore the potential of poetic syntax and structures as compositional tools. Inherent in the construction of these pieces is the evolution of frequency interplays, an allusion to the arcane notions of transmutation which guide her practice. Friedberg built the six-minute long Pantoum from multiple hours of field recordings montaged together on ¼ inch tape. Modeled after a pantoum poem, a form which links together quatrains, the work unfolds as an arch of the subsonic to the ethereal. Parallelisms employs oscillator generated pure tones to arrive at a composition that is simultaneously a linear and a sculptural psychoacoustic entity. Both pieces use a precise number system adapted from gnostic precepts to arrange frequencies, speaker configuration, and spatialization. Taken together, Pantoum and Parallelisms speak to Friedberg’s metaphysical engagement with sonic matter, an approach which allows sound and listener alike to access new planes of existence. Totaling thirty-one minutes, these works will be presented to a series of small groups over the course of three days.