Spirit in Sonic Art: BRIDGE

Thursday, September 5, 2024 at 7:00 PM

Join us for Spirit in Sonic Art: BRIDGE, on September 5 at 7:00 PM where audiences will explore a Missouri River bridge as instrument with lap-steel soloist William Dye, metal percussion construction by Allan Winkler and the gongs and voice of Allaudin Ottinger.

 “Bridges are expressions of our spiritual evolution, and our impulse toward transcendence.”
—Rev. Dwight Frizzell

Bridges are resonant living systems activated by our crossing formidable passageways now made passé. Crossing Liberty Bend Bridge, our featured instrument, takes a mere 14 seconds. We invite you to hang with the bridge a moment longer, entertain its own perspective, listen inside its metal structure, ascertain its rhythms and singing tones as we listen to humanity in transition from one side to the other.

The sonorous Missouri River bridge at Highway 291 (near Independence) is a magnificent traffic-activated instrument expressing a flow of people, materials, animals and plants. Its voice, animated by us humans and full of percussive and harmonic sound, is intimately heard by nestling an ear on its metal understructure (or attaching contact microphones as recorded here by Dwight Frizzell).

 The musicians match, merge and soar with the bridge soundscape, with the exception of the lap steel guitar of Bill Dye who pulls from the world traditions of the river music by river people— such as raga from the Ganges and Delta Blues from the great Mississippi.

Produced by Rev. Dwight Frizzell, Spirit of Sonic Art is an exploration of sound as medium, and will occur two more times this fall at Charlotte Street.