Elliott Sharp, Foliage

Composer Elliott Sharp joins David Weinstein in the studio to discuss the release of Foliage, a musical work realized through the tradition of the "graphic score." The two discuss process and listen to examples of Foliage being performed. They also discuss the history of the technique including historic efforts by composers such as Luigi Russolo and Cornelius Cardew. About this collection of pages designed to be both instructions/suggestions for sound and also a work of visual art, Sharp writes:

Foliage is a piece of retinal art as much as it is an instruction set for sound, form and function interlocked. Each individual page is complete in itself, some more simple, others not so. One may also look at the pages as sequences and sub-sequences – when quickly scrolled, they take on the form of animations. All have been created through multiple layers of processing. The result is a manifestation of that internal synaesthesia that is the translation of thought, emotion, and process from one set of frequencies to another.

The score, published as an eBook, is available through the publisher, Lulu, and through iTunes. Several large prints from the set are on view in the exhibition Render Visible, hosted by Present Company at 29 Wythe Ave, Brooklyn as part of a group show organized by Blonde Art Books in collaboration with Matthew Walker from September 30 – October 28, 2012.

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