Gongburgh: Steeltown Forests

Gongburgh: Steeltown Forests (2012)

Installation (2013) Humboldt University, Berlin

Read about it in the
Journal of Sonic Studies, issue 7

Please make a donation to the Hazelwood Food Forest
in Pittsburgh, PA! Any donation to the Hazelwood Food Forest will be used in creating a front entrance gate and for planting more flowers and fruit plants in the food forest.

Once your donation is received through paypal, we'll send you the entire full-length album (6 tracks and 42 minutes) of original compositions. Please hear samples 1 through 3 to get the flavor:

Please notify me of your donation at the following email and you will receive the album via WeTransfer.com within 24 hours: jeremy(at)neue-musikschule-berlin(dot)de

Thank you!

Sources:

Field recordings in April 2012 of myself and members of the community playing at the site of the Hazelwood Food Forest and interviews with one of the founders, Juliette Jones.

gamelan courtesy of the University of Pittsburgh gamelan

Archived recording "Sounds of Steel," both on its own and amplified through the big gong of the gamelan,courtesy of Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area

Recent sound from video recordings of the RG Steel plant in Warren, one of the few remaining active steel plants in the Pittsburgh area, courtesy of United Steel Workers

jeremygong1

To Jeremy Woodruff's website

Gongburgh: Steeltown Forests is an exploration of sounds of Pittsburgh's past, present and future. Industrial and urban sounds are mixed with gamelan to unleash the Pitt gamelan on the Pittsburgh soundscape. At the same time, the gongs themselves are exposed to sounds outside their home at the university that I imagined they must have always been yearning to hear.

Permaculture offers a model of self-sustainable community horticulture. In the US, with poverty rates and hunger continuing to rise and within a continuing culture of ignoring the unsustainability of current levels of urban and industrial waste, projects like the Hazelwood Food Forest (part of Pittsburgh Permaculture) are more important than ever. And they are fun, yummy, community oriented and beautify the city. Please enjoy the music and donate to the Hazelwood Food Forest - or donate to your own local permaculture projects. Remember, you too can turn creative capital into awareness and healthy food!

Selected sources:

Allen, Aaron S. “Prospects and Problems for Ecomusicology in Confronting a Crisis of Culture,” Journal of the American Musicological Society, 64 (2011) 414 - 424.

Berkes, Fikret. Sacred Ecology (NY, London: Routledge, 2008)

Cairns, Malcolm. Voices from the Forest: Integrating Indigenous Knowledge into Sustainable Upland Farming (Washington DC: RFF Press, 2007)

Copeman, Dick. “Permaculture: Design Principles for Urban Sustainability” in Nelson, Anitra, Ed. Steering Sustainability in an Urbanizing World: Policy, Practice and Performance (Hampshire UK, Burlington VT: Ashgate, 2007)

DeNora, Tia. Music-In-Action: Selected Essays in Sonic Ecology, (Surrey, UK and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2011)

Feld, Steven “Sound Structure as Social Structure,” Ethnomusicology, 28 (1984): 383–409.

Henriques, Julian. Sonic Bodies: Reggae Sound Systems, Performance Techniques and Ways of Knowing, (New York and London: Continuum, 2011)

Holmgren, David. Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability, (Hepburn, Victoria: Holmgren Design Services, 2002)

LaBelle, Brandon. Acoustic Territories: Sound Culture and Everyday Life, (New York: Continuum, 2010)

Oddies, Richard. “Other Voices: Acoustic Ecology and Urban Soundscapes” in Ingrid Leman Stefanovic and Stephen Bede Scharper, Eds. The Natural City: Re-Envisioning the Built Environment, (Toronto, Buffulo, London: University of Toronto Press, 2012)

Rehding, Alexander. “Ecolomusicology between Apocolypse and Nostalgia,” Journal of the American Musicological Society, 64 (2011) 409 - 414.

Sanderson, Christopher Carter. Gorillatheatre: a Practical Guide to Performing the New Outdoor Theatre Anytime, Anywhere, (London and New York: Routledge, 2003)

Sillitoe, Paul. Local Science vs Global Science: Approaches to Indigenous Knowledge in International Development (New York, Oxford: Berghahn, 2007)

Weiss, Allen S. Varieties of Audio Mimesis: Musical Evocations of Landscape, (New York: Errant Bodies Press, 2008)

Internet and Media:

“Hazelwood Food Forest”
http://pittsburghpermaculture.org/pghfoodforests/hazelwood-food-forest

Copper, tin & fire: gongsmithing in Java / produced in cooperation with Boston Community Access and Programming Foundation; producer, Sam Quigley. [VHS]

U.S.S., "The Sounds of Steelmaking." (included as part of the book) One Billion Dollars in Progress, 1965, (courtesy of Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area)

Formidable Vegetable Sound System
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_BDdizZsABQ