27 Jan Ear to the Earth – Meet Leah Barclay
At the 2012 Ear to the Earth Festival in New York Leah Barclay was invited to present a special event outlining her recent projects in environmental sound art. During the festival she previewed two new works and spoke about her PhD research and ongoing community projects. The entire theme of the festival revolved around John Cage, titled ‘100 x John: A Global Salute to John Cage’. Leah’s composition Confluence was also selected for the 100 x John Ear to the Earth Collection.
In 1937, in a talk titled The Future of Music: Credo, John Cage said, “I believe that the use of noise to make music will continue and increase until we reach a music produced through the aid of electrical instruments which will make available for musical purposes any and all sounds that can be heard …”
As a salute to Cage for his leadership in what Joel Chadabe called “the great opening up of music to all sounds”, and in the spirit of the 100th anniversary year of his birth, we invited composers and sound artists around the world to contribute to a collection of 100 compositions and sounds. All of the compositions and sounds are based on field recordings, natural and urban, some using traditional instruments and voice.