Sounds Like Things
Sounds Like Things is an experimental music duo formed in 2020 by percussionist/composer, Andrew Stauffer, and cellist/composer, Nicholas Denton Protsack. Sounds Like Things takes novel approaches to their music, exploring the sonic possibilities of found objects, extended techniques, alternate tuning systems, effects pedals, and multidisciplinary collaboration. Improvisation features heavily in their live performances. In addition to their primary instruments, Stauffer (pitched and unpitched percussion) and Denton Protsack (cello) utilize other instruments such as the hammer dulcimer, flutes, guitar, piano, and various found objects and made instruments.
Firebird
Firebird is a full-length album of voice and experimental music by Kythe Heller (voice and text) and Kelowna-based duo Sounds Like Things: Andrew Stauffer (percussion), and Nicholas Denton Protsack (cello). The work, which comes from Heller’s poetry collection, Firebird (Arrowsmith Press), probes the capacity of the human spirit to endure under extreme conditions. Here, fire is both a destructive and a unifying force, altering people and landscapes. Runaways, the sick and the poor, a forest and a smoldering mattress—these stunning images burn themselves into the reader’s imagination. The female body becomes the site of trauma and myth, a place where “everything is burning, has been and is always burning.”
In their compositions, Stauffer and Denton Protsack draw from a vast array of sonic resources that include vocalizations, cello, pitched and unpitched percussion, hammered dulcimer, bells, found objects (including boiling water, gardening gloves, fire, and snow), and field recordings. The music corresponds to a secret intimacy of the ear—a liminal space where meaning, sound, and word merge and touch one another, and by touching, put into play the whole system of the senses.
Print by Annie Silverman
CICK Radio, Smithers BC
This recording was made at CICK Radio in Smithers, BC on August 6, 2021, as part of the Orchestra North Residency.
Tuskarve Roar
What does it mean to 'carve' a sound? 'Tuskarve Roar' attempts to answer that question by creating a musical response to the Lion-man of the Hohlenstein-Stadel, a figurine carved from a Mammoth tusk over 35,000 years ago by prehistoric peoples. Tuskarve Roar utilizes subtractive synthesis to 'chip away' bits of sound from a lion's roar—much like the creators of the figurine chipped away pieces from a tusk to produce the Lion-Man. The tools used to chip away the sound however are not blades or chisels, but rather percussive instruments whose sonic 'imprints' cut away more and more of the lion's roar until it becomes a percussive instrument itself.
Released October 27, 2020
Andrew Stauffer (percussion instruments, found sounds), Leila Neverland (vocals), Nicholas Denton Protsack (cello, electronics, and found sounds).
Album artwork by Steve DiPaola:
'Lionman Emerges through the Ether' (2020)
HEaRD
Inspired by the idea of bringing community members together to disrupt the auditory monotony of city life, HEaRD is a mobile sound installation for multiple bicyclists. Each bicyclist is equipped with a speaker and pitch-altered windchimes, which are mounted to the bike. The audio played on each speaker is a mixture of electronic tones and field recordings of natural and urban sounds sampled from the soundscapes of the Okanagan.
The performance, which is evocative of an assemblage of individual organisms, is like a swarm of insects or a herd of migratory animals. In an environment where traffic, sirens, and construction noise are the norm, HEaRD offers a unique and inspiring experience of soundscapes from the Okanagan along with new and experimental electronic recordings.