Frozen Music
2005, Multiscreen Concert Scenography
Third Angle, a contemporary music ensemble in Portland, Oregon, closed its 2005 season with a project that melded music and architecture: three unique edifices in downtown Portland were transformed into distinct performance venues that explored the relationship between music and architecture. A raw, unfinished basement served as a blank canvas where technology and art converged in expansive projections, immersing audiences in architectural fantasia. Floor-to-ceiling screens became windows into imaginary underwater worlds, transforming the surroundings throughout the duration of two performances that featured Onomatopoeia by Steve Westlake and Five Remixes of a Forgotten Theme by Brede Rørstad. As a backdrop to the musical journeys, the architectural structures in the basement served as points of departure from which different environments emerged and evolved through fluid, poetic, and playful imagery synchronized with sound. The underwater worlds were inspired by Piranesi’s prisons, Dr. Seuss’s 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, and Ernst Haeckle’s life forms, all brought to life in collaboration with Martin Linde, Alphonse Swinehart, Matt Arnold, and Danny Rosenberg.
“The unfinished basement of the Hilton Executive Tower, built in 2002, beckoned us into a ‘virtual concert hall’ of the future. From street level, we descended to a bunker of concrete walls and exposed pipes. Four projection screens the size of garage doors rose behind Brian Quincey, an Oregon Symphony violist, who performed two works…Johnson’s images took us down to a watery city of leaning towers glistening under reflected sunlight. Red and purple sea creatures—star shapes, sinuous tadpoles—glided about. Bubbles rose. Sitting in the dark, immersed in a watery world, I felt as if I were in a dream. Johnson somehow transformed a cold catacomb into a womb of flowing fantasies. My senses enjoyed a good soak.”
—“Diverse Spaces Sweeten, Sour Third Angle Music,” The Oregonian, David Stabler, May 4, 2005