J.S. Bach, Goldberg Variations at half speed: This is an early example of music for sleep. It was commissioned by Count Kaiserling, an insomniac of the 18th Century.* :50
Temier dreamchants: This mountain people in Malaysia have an active dream culture centered around all night community dream rituals. Coming in and out of sleep, they sing and dance their visions. From R. Noone's Folkways record. 1:40
Spirits for piano and electronics.
This is an assemblage of sustained passages mixed with resonance sounding of the piano. Markings are made on the body and strings of the piano to be touched by a microphone, causing the internal structural resonances to be touched by a microphone, causing the internal structural resonances to be heard from the sounding board. It is a transducer feedback process that could be called "acoustic acupressure." Performance recording by R.I.P.H., Berlin 1976 6:30
Dreamsound auto suggestion messages: In the event, the audience was asked whether they wished to speak to themselves while they slept. A cassette recorder received and played these messages to each participant in private slumber. These are samples from various performances. 5:45
Ocean surf: the Pacific at Pt. Reyes, California with foghorn. This is the universally effective sleep inducer. * 4:45
Sleep breath of R.I.P.H. recorded from eardrum in an experiment to make audio level recordings of the middle ear muscle activity reflection of the sounds imagined while dreaming. This is analogous to rapid eye movements in dreamstate. The high sound levels of respiration and circulation covered all but a few minute sounds coming from the ear. The investigation continues toward a realizable technique to tape the sounds of dreaming... Recorded at ZBS Media with assistance from the Sleep Research Laboratory of Montefiore Medical Center. 1:00
Sound effects: in the dark and quiet of the night there would be intermittent sound and smell effects. Medical researchers have shown that everyday sounds have the greatest influence on dream contents. These are a few examples... 6:05
Dawn birds: These greeted everyone as they arose on their own time. 2:20
A fuller description of the event:
for rest in the afternoon before the event, I publicly perform "Sleepwhistle," a long nap with whistles in my mouth making multiple tones of my breathing
an audience of up to 40 assembles after 11pm in a warm space with bedding
the guests are greeted as they arrive with warm milk, chamomile tea, candles, a silent television, a film of a fireplace, and "pillow notes" booklet for dream information
background sounds: crickets, old popular songs with sleep and dream images, Bach Goldberg variations at half speed, Ainu shaman chant, Malaysian Temier dream songs, beating sine tones...
once audience is settled: a lecture about the purpose and plan of the event; information on scientific facts of sleep, dreams, and the effects of sound; history of collective sleep rituals of ancient and currect peoples; dream in religious and art..... all the while slowly stripping from a formal suit to nightshirt and once brushing the teeth while talking
performance of Dali's nap: sitting in a chair, holding a spoon, one relaxes and fades asleep. The spoon drops from the hand, clangs on the floor and wakes one up, refreshed.
"ghost cartoon" tape of surreptitiously recorded conversations about ghosts played with visual effects
tape of Tibetan bells played while recording each individual's voice message for auto-suggestive playback during sleep
performance of late nite +x Before the late night television programs, hot objects are pressed into dry ice creating gaseous sounds.
darkness, gradually
"spirits" for piano and electronics; "taps" in slowing time on flute
tape of ocean surf played until audience is asleep
quiet through the night with intermittent sound effects: footsteps, rain, a car driving away, a heartbeat, a telephone dialing and no answer, laughter, a clock ticking, gurgling stream, cat's purr, wind, baby's coo, etc...
soft playback to each sleeper's ear of own voice
intermittent release of smells: incense, cheese, spices...
a fragrant flower at each's pillow in the morning
dawn bird sounds as people arise on their own time
breakfast in the kitchen: coffee, tea, juice, fruit, bread, cheese, pastry and a continuous film of coffee disappearing from a cup
inquiry and discussion of the night's dream experiences
*some dreams reported:
"I was at a party with my friends talking and dancing. Then I awoke and saw them all sleeping. So I went back to sleep and to the party where the fun was..."
"I heard my voice say 'red' and dreamt of meeting with some communists who were the back up band for a video cabaret"
"I anticipated my voice, but when it came, I had a strange accent."
"I was dreaming of a contest where a room of people could do no talking. I finally spoke and lost the contest."
"I was dreaming of something, but when I heard my voice say 'listen,' the dream stopped."
A dog asleep at the event scratched its neck, loudly rattling its tags: "I was lying down still. Suddenly appeared an old Indian shaking his death rattle. He stopped and disappeared just before I died."
"I was awake all night and heard nothing at all. But I feel so well rested."
*some observations
Even in very mixed groups of people in spaces with limited comforts, sleep is very contagious. With the proper sounds and atmosphere, even professed insomniacs slept.
People often did not really know when or if they were awake or asleep. Being semi-conscious in an unfamiliar setting with many people was a state of provocative disorientation which the participants handled quite well. Many of the reported dreams came from hypnogogic impressions on the verge of sleep.
Participants expectations and degree of dream recall were often in contrast. The initially wary often had stronger responses than the enthused, even with their own dream messages.
"Then something crept into my mind. It seemed to be some sort of wonderfully beautiful, never-before-heard music, cool and crystalline in sound, chaste and flowing in construction. The memory of that music awoke a pang of recollection, as if the music had been heard and then slipped away again, leaving only a dim and fading after-image of an extraordinarily consoling emotional experience.
"Whether Mr. Hayman had actually played music like that, or whether it had been a dream, or whether it had been an idea during a period of wakefulness about what should have been happening, this dreamer can't say for sure. And in that very confusion lies the ultimate success of the event." --John Rockwell, New York Times
credits
from 7914A - Dreamsound, India Transformed,
released April 21, 1980
performance assistant: Vivien LaMothe, Paco Underhill
production assistance: ZBS Media Foundation
*donates recordings from the sound archive
consultation: Sleep Research Laboratories, Department of Psychiatry, Montefiore Medical Center, New York, Dr. Charles Fisher, Mt Sinai Medical Center, New York, Dr. William Dement, Stanford University Sleep Clinic, Palo Alto
first performed at the Conimicut Foundation, 1750 Arch St. Berkeley, Ca.
February 20, 1976
also at: and/or, Seattle
Western Front, Vancouver
A Space, Toronto
Kitchen, New York
Hallwalls, Buffalo
Vehicule, Montreal
Eden's Expressway, New York
AUDIOGRAPHICS was a New Wilderness Foundation project of the 1970s. AUDIOGRAPHICS offered a number of sound artists the
opportunity to record a variety of works - experimental and traditional music, poetry, storytelling and other sound and language art - in a professional recording studio. Now, you can stream these AUDIOGRAPHICS releases, here....more
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“With Julius, he was based in repetition, but here was a spirit of openness and improvisation. His scores, if they were written out that way, were often like jazz scores. He loved multiplying instruments – four pianos, ten cellos – so there was a real feeling of the presence of the instrument, not just using an instrument in some kind of equation, as a means to an end.” ~ Mary Jane Leach
Enough said. pt
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wow wow wow is this boxset ever full of riches. Dreamtime, The Driver's Son, and Barn Fever are some of my new favourites, and I am 1 of those people who first (knowingly) came across"Blue" Gene Tyranny's work through Trust in Rock. now I have the pleasure of working backwards, forwards, and in all of the degrees of freedom found Cage's Deli
Composer and producer Matthew Ryals and his modular synth balance technique and spontaneity on this trip through imaginative soundscapes. Bandcamp New & Notable May 17, 2022
supported by 16 fans who also own “Excerpts from dreamsound, an event for a sleeping audience”
Most recent listen commenced with entering a 54-mile road with no clear exists in Colorado, full of mountains, ice, snow, and no guard rails. Didn't think I was coming back. But, boy, was this opening track made all the more vivid. Love this record! Ongoing Box
