The Yuha Archive :: “SONICFOLIO SCORES” Episode 1:: Manta Study— FIELD NOTES
SONICFOLIO SCORES was a collection of graphic scores jointly produced by The Yuha Archive (Toronto), and The Operating System Liminal Lab (New York). From August 2021- August 2022, eleven graphic scores were produced. Each graphic score endeavored to introduce new perspectives in musical notation and interpretation. The full archive can be found HERE
Manta Study” is the first installment of the SONICFOLIO SCORES Project supported by the Operating System & Liminal Lab. To stay up to date with the Yuha Archive SONICFOLIO Series, follow the project on Soundcloud or the Archive’s website. For the introduction to this series here on the OS’ Medium platform, click here.
I composed the graphic score “Manta Study” to examine tactile time; the relations between synesthesia and collective memory within our surroundings. For a long time, I always reflected on how memory holds archival & retrieval properties that influence algorithmic responses in our actions and ways of thinking. A flower is not a flower. The sky is not the Earth. Memory is an inner atlas for individuals to hypothesize, delete, and rewrite lived and shared experiences; a vibrational tool within our bodies that must be tuned and retuned overtime. Of course, the flower is not a flower. Instead, I view flowers as wildfire. The sky is not the Earth after all. As a child, I used to believe the sky was a blanket that comforted Earth before being banished away into the atmosphere. And so, is memory then a work of fiction? Is music notation then a byproduct of memory? How viable is memory? Should memory be trusted?
“Manta Study” spotlights four contrasting colors which formulate the sonic geography of the work: light purple, aqua green, true green, and yellow orange. The colors embed sensory information in the form of “X”s which are placed across three unspecified bar lines. A written prompt appears in the graphic score endeavoring the participatory continuity between two performing mediums: the shared individual with its subject, and the shared subject as its object. The two subjects as initiated in the prompt suggest individuals to explore their immediate environments in search for forgotten data responses, aide-mémoire artifacts, and intention fields that convey a unit of tactility to oneself. These tactile data eventually extend themselves as “flight” depositories within the score that loop an rewire the four-color spectrum in “Manta Study.” Note, the score should never serve as a means to a definite end but instead, the start of an end towards a possible means.
Time has a scent. It is the fragrance of time that allows us to linger (Byung Chul Han). A color, similar to sound is interconnected towards a set of intervallic experiences and foreign stimulus both recruitable to our inner worlds and outer worlds. The myriad sensory factors that power ourselves, our surroundings, our environment and our community, is a holistic notation that we as collective beings must archive towards.
Together with my collaborator Alinovsky, we took to the the cities to create our soundscape response for “Manta Study.” What will your response be?
INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO BUILD “MANTA STUDY”
Manta Study may be conceived in any order or sequence within the defined space, duration, and tempo within the three-bar system; conceived in either the treble or bass clef (or in between). The notes marked “X” and their symbolic relation to their respective “X(s)” remain relative to one another, and may be interpreted holistically, or freely at the liberty of the creator’s definition of space. Manta Study sports a repetitive stasis in form, and may use as many or as minimal sonic materials for creation.
Four colors are prescribed to the “X(s)” in Manta Study: light purple, true green, yellow orange, and aqua green. The four colors suggest different sentiments, modes, and dynamics
Light purple: ppp. retrograding bliss. (insert flight)
Aqua green: mp to mf. hollow warmth. (insert flight)
True green: F (felt inwardly). shooting stars. (insert flight)
Yellow orange: F (outwardly). dawn continent. (insert flight)
Prior to building Manta Study, creators are to read the “prompt” as indicated on the score. After the prompt, list out 4 different memories that evoke a personal sense of flight. These four “flights” may be paired respectively with the 4 colors that relate best to your initial “flights.”
Prompt: Go out and take a walk. As you walk, take a breath and nod to yourself. Realize that there are infinite ways to how one can breathe. Are you still walking? As you walk, look to the right side of your shoulder. The subject that you encounter to your right is simply a mere passing subject. Should you believe it is not a subject, you can choose to engage with the subject. As you walk, consider both the subject in passing and the subject that you engage with. Where does this take you? Consider this as a phenomenon of walking. As you walk, ask yourself and the subject what should you consider while walking. Repeat everything again and continue about your day.
Stanford Cheung engages across a variety of creative hubs as a classical pianist, sonic artist, improvisor, and multi-disciplinary poet. From concerto performances with orchestras, poetry recitals, to electronic free-form improvisation for art installations, Cheung has collaborated internationally with a variety of artists and scholars, including Morgan Fisher, Steven J Fowler, Shahzad Ismaily and Nobuo Kubota. Cheung’s commissioned projects have been exhibited or forthcoming at the 43rd Rhubarb Festival (Buddies in Bad Times), Osaka University OCCA, Edinburgh University, Christchurch University, Banff Centre for the Arts, Orpheus Institute, Kitakyushu Centre for Contemporary Arts, Tokyo Poetry Journal, among others. Presently, Cheung is pursuing his Doctoral degree in music at McGill University where his research is dedicated to the Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. He runs a multimodal soundscape project called The Yuha Archive.
You can find him here: https://stanfordcheung.com/
The Yuha Archive: archiveyuha.com
Alain Lefebvre aka Alinovsky is a sound artist, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist from Belgium. Since 1976, Lefebvre has recorded and performed with American bands Tuxedomoon, Anna Domino, Winstong Tong, Blaine L. Reininger, the English musicians Vini Reilly (The Durutti Column), Anne Clark, Alan Rankine, the French band Antena and the Belgian musician Benjamin Lew among others. In 2007, Lefebvre founded his label Off which up to 2021 has released more than 400 avant-garde recording projects from all over the world.
The Label: www.off-recordlabel.blogspot.com
