SPLIT | VINYL RECORD (LP)

Sound sculptures and gongs by Harry Bertoia unite the sides of this split LP from Tara Jane O'Neil and Eleh. O'Neil's composition was commissioned by Venessa Renwick for her Medusa Smack video installation (originally screened in 2012 at the Oregon Biennial). The piece is partially created from sounds recorded by Bertoia on his own Sonambient sound sculptures, as well as O'Neil's recording of Athanasius Kircher's Bell Wheel at the Museum of Jurassic Technology. Eleh's side consists of 100 gongs synthesized on a Serge modular system to honor the 2015 centennial of Bertoia's birth. Vanessa Renwick recalls the conception of Medusa Smack: In the '70s I was a bike messenger in Chicago and whenever I had downtime, I would hang out in front of the huge Bertoia sound sculpture outside of the Standard Oil Building. The winds off Lake Michigan whipped his masterpiece about, clanging and banging. Years later, in Oregon, I came across a small Bertoia sound sculpture, I clasped it's rods together within my hands and released them. The exquisite noise they made immediately whispered Tara Jane O'Neil to me. I knew that someday I would make a film and Tara would incorporate this very noise into the score. Along came my idea to create a giant mother-jellyfish-shaped screen, the Medusa Smack, for people to lay beneath, with moon jellies and pacific sea nettles projected upon it. I asked Tara to create the score, and incorporate Bertoia's own sound recordings into it. Harry Bertoia's son, Val, granted his permission. This beauty to lull you away to the deep is the result. Packaged in deluxe letterpress-printed jackets. Edition of 700.