Vancouver drummer Ben Brown makes music out of public art with Sound Sculptures
The musician’s free performances give new life to artworks at local parks
Ben Brown discovered new instruments at Vancouver’s parks. Photo by Andi McLeish
Vancouver New Music presents Sound Sculptures by Ben Brown on September 12 at 3 pm PDT at Dragon Skin Pavilion (UBC); September 19 at 3 pm PDT at Gate to the Northwest Passage (Vanier Park – Kitsilano); September 26 at 3 pm PDT at The Swimmer (Vancouver Aquatic Centre); and October 3 at 6 pm at The Solo (Devonian Harbour Park – Coal Harbour).
BY THE TIME Ben Brown was 12, he had a drum kit set up in his garage, where he played with pals, made up songs, and started bands. As a drummer, the Vancouver musician-composer has gone on to collaborate with dancers and choreographers and win a Juno award with his band Pugs & Crows. More recently, local parks have become Brown’s rehearsal studio, public artwork his instruments.
Sound Sculptures is the artist’s new project exploring the city’s “playability”. Presented by Vancouver New Music, the series unfolds over four dates at different locations, each one home to a sculpture that takes on musical life and form when struck by hands and soft mallets.
Dragon Skin Pavilion (at UBC), Gate to the Northwest Passage (Kitsilano), Solo (Coal Harbour), and The Swimmer (Vancouver Aquatic Centre) are not only wildly different structures in their shape and appearance, but also, it turns out, in terms of the notes and noises that come from them.
“I am dealing with two major themes—the physicality of learning how to play a sculpture like a percussion instrument and investigating the sounds hidden within,” Brown tells Stir. “Each sculpture is wildly different—some as tall as a house.
“I’ve always been interested in exploring sounds,” he says. “Whether it be on a traditional instrument or an everyday object, I am always searching for new sounds. Specifically, I’m interested in creating music with a surprising amount of timbre and dynamic range. Like, how many different sounds can I get out of this object and can I move that sound from a bellowing roar down to a gentle whisper on a moment’s notice?”
Brown discovered the four pieces of art last summer while biking around the city with his mallets and a list of Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation’s public-art works.
“The four pieces I selected were surprisingly musical and a fun challenge to play, but in the process, I test-ran at least a dozen sculptures and monuments that summer,” he says.
Harmanie Rose, a dancer for All Bodies Dance (left) and Ben Brown. Photo by Andi McLeish
The origins of Sound Sculptures, however, go much further back in the artist’s lifelong musical exploration.
Brown grew up in a musical family and was obsessed with Michael Jackson as a kid—“which I suppose was really like watching rhythm embodied”, he says. Dance was one of his first loves.
“To this day I think there is nothing cooler, watching the nuance and groove of rhythms articulated in the body,” he says. “I never set out to be a drummer per se, I was just always interested in the creative process of being a musician, whatever the instrument—exploring sound, writing songs, improvising—and the movement that came along with it.”
Over the last decade, Brown—who is the founder of Music And Movement Mondays (MAMM), an improvisational series for live musicians and dancers, and Conundrum, a performance series showcasing Vancouver drummers—has focussed on playing primarily free improv with musicians and dancers. Part of the fun, he says, has been challenging himself to make new sounds in new ways.
“So, my drum kit set-up began to expand like a balloon as I began bringing more and more toys and trinkets to augment the traditional drum kit sound,” Brown explains. “At a certain point, probably during my first solo tour of Europe in 2015, my drum kit no longer looked like a drum kit. The drums themselves were often covered with bells and shakers et cetera. I was using my travel suitcase for a bass drum. I’d often perform with only one drum so I could more easily move around the room.
“More recently, I’ve been exploring preparing my drums with fantastic colours before I play them—covering the kit in red and white rose petals or rainbowlike bird feathers,” he adds. “At some point in this process I suppose I was approaching my drum kit No longer just as an instrument, but like an art installation, like a sound sculpture.”
On the first two Sound Sculptures dates, joining Brown are collaborators from All Bodies Dance and Dancing the Parenting. For the final two, he’ll perform percussion solo. “The music will be a combination of improvisation and composition made specifically for that sculpture and quite possibly only for this performance,” he says.
The creation of Sound Sculptures has been an experience unlike any other for Brown. In his exploration of the musicality of outdoor art, passersby have been part of the process since day one.
“Folks have approached me from so many different walks of life, all offering up a similar curiosity and openness to the work I’m doing,” Brown says. “My interactions with these people have been moving and humanity-reaffirming, especially given the alienating and divisive times we’re living in. I’ve met students, Wreck Beach enthusiasts, newcomers to Canada, children, elders... Most of these people are not musicians, but when offered a pair of mallets to try playing a ‘musical sculpture’ for the first time, the answer is almost always yes.
“People want to be creative,” he says. “People want an invitation to interact with their surroundings. People want space to be curious. People want play.”
“As my mentor Dame Evelyn Glennie says, we hear with the whole body, not just our ears,” he says. “These sculptures are very generous, allowing you to feel the vibration of sound in your body. It’s a lovely feeling.”
For more information, see https://newmusic.org/ and http://benbrownsounds.com/.
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