Firedamp
- Alexi Baris
Western Front is pleased to present a new twenty-minute octophonic composition by Alexi Baris, developed as a parallel event to Rachelle Sawatsky’s solo exhibition Vitals.
In Firedamp, Baris explores the sonic potentiality generated by a solitary feedback patch on a modular synthesizer. Analyzing how proximity, frequency, and distortion work together to synthesize sense from raw sensation, Baris examines the relations they deposit and the individual perceptions that they trigger. Taking its title from the phenomena of combustible pockets of methane gas found in coal seams, Firedamp evokes a physicality, where vaporous emergences exhibit. This work also furthers Baris’s ongoing interest in psychoacoustics—how the human auditory system perceives various sounds—and the mimesis of nature that can occur in synthetic soundscapes.
Presented as an eight-channel spatialized sound installation, audiences are invited to enjoy Firedamp as an immersive deep listening experience for up to twenty-five people at a time.
About the Artist
Alexi Baris is a musician based in Vancouver, Canada. Trading in sonics that are at once organized and organic, his work presents synthetic and acoustic elements in states of perpetual flux. Bringing a painterly approach to sound design and arrangement, his compositions are defined by texture, tone, and their own entrancing spatiality.
Accessibility
The Grand Luxe Hall is located on the second floor of Western Front, which is accessed by a flight of 26 stairs. Further details about accessibility at Western Front can be found here.
Acknowledgements
Presented with the support of the Government of Canada and SOCAN Foundation.
Western Front is a non-profit
artist-run centre in Vancouver.
We acknowledge the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations as traditional owners of the land upon which Western Front stands.