TRANSreveLATION was a one-night showcase of live performance, dance, real-time processing, and a reverie of previously recorded audio compositions. Performed on April 26, 2007, in the basement auditorium of the Unitarian Universalist Community Church of New York in midtown Manhattan, fifty guests gathered to engage in and aurally witness a unique collection of sound art and movement.

Nature and technology remarkably mix to explore the concept of ekphrasis, the basis for this concert, developed and curated by Melissa Grey and Jim Briggs III. Put simply, ekphrasis is imagery dramatically translated by poetry, but it pertains to any form of media. Pulling us deep into the trail of inspiration, ekphrasis can allow an artist to delightfully bury the tracks of artistic motivation in an interpretative web of rhetoric, freely describing one form with another. That tactic is demonstrated in this program.

TRANSreveLATION comprises twelve pieces created, developed, or performed by artists of varied backgrounds and influences. Each challenges how we hear and experience sound, putting it in the foreground and visual components of their accessories. Still, in our search for narrative, logic, and order, our untrained ears strain to identify recognizable sounds, to make sense of them. As with any subversive mechanism, we must give up on that quest. It takes us a moment to realize — to remember — that all of these sounds are representations of other sounds, layered by recording, manipulation, and ultimately through play. The organism of the real here has been redefined and recontextualized, the byproduct being fluid and intangibly fleeting. Jaime Rojas’ aquatic soundscape “Aquasonora” is no exception. It was conceived as a virtual means of transporting his audience to a body of water, where an immersive swimming experience occurs. There is a celebration of water in all of its noise and movement: falling, crashing, draining, dripping, stopping and starting. Rojas creates an environment that involves no tangible water, enveloping his audience in a mental bath of warmth and play.

Lin Culbertson, a multi-instrumentalist and composer, presents “Aural Spiral”, a geometrically aural and visual composition inspired by one of Robert Smithson’s majestic earthworks “Spiral Jetty”. More entrancing than the graphically spiralling image projected onto the screen is the digitally produced spiralling sounds which intensify it. They are one part psychedelic backdrop to a 1960s Beatles film skit and two parts aural reproduction of a discomforting dream. The combination creates a wonderful balance of seriousness and whimsy.

Jesse Serrins’ “Grohn” delivers a Lynchian drone while the mechanics of sound production are in plain view as audiences watch a real-time processing performance. With his brows furrowed in concentration and creativity, his illuminated expression matches the illuminated “bitten apple” that marks his laptop-turned musical instrument.

Composer Melissa Grey’s “Appassionato” touches on both the digitally rendered and performance-based interpretation of ekphrasis in a live variation with flautist Harold Jones and violinist Mioi Takeda. The impact of the extended subharmonic technique — an unmistakably haunting sound — creates a paralyzing effect, which doesn’t fail to fill the room with an elegantly diabolical air. This technically complex composition is inspired by some music written in Ludwig Wittgenstein’s journal. His self-examining maxim “I destroy”, discovered alongside his score, is translated musically here in violin harmonics. The result is strikingly eerie and captivating.

“Third Remembered Dream”, a live performance of dance, choreographed by Adrienne Westwood and [url:www.viadance.org]VIA Dance Collaborative[/url], accompanied by a musical score by Jim Briggs III. Dance and music cleverly connect through repeated themes and exaggerated gestures.

The final selection of the program, “Bow Falls”, is an audio-visual interpretation of Bow Falls in majestic Banff, Canada, by seasoned artists Earthscore Paul Ryan and Annea Lockwood. The two have successfully created bodies of work that artistically draw from nature and our environment. “Bow Falls” illustrates naturally occurring patterns and sounds that translate gracefully through their recordings.

TRANSreveLATION is not an exploration of a new principle but demonstrates how ekphrasis can be elaborated upon, interpreted, and used in unlimited combinations of different technologies. Nature is refreshingly and thoroughly represented throughout the program, going against what could easily have been a highly digitized evening of mass-produced noise that lacks inspiration from our environment. The delight of an almost exclusively aural program delivers the body a sense of comfort and, surprisingly, an encounter with nature.