Harbors
Harbors is a collaboration of composers Ellen Fullman (Long String Instrument) and Theresa Wong (cello and electronics), which draws inspiration from the soundscapes, stories and atmospheres that manifest around bodies of water that propagate exchange. Structured around the extended harmonics of the open strings of the cello, Wong and Fullman utilize subsets of these tonal areas to create distinct sonic environments within the piece. Fullman’s Long String Instrument, a stunning installation of over forty strings spanning seventy feet in length, places the performers and audience inside the actual resonating body, transforming the architecture itself into the musical instrument. Wong has developed techniques that take the cello beyond tradition into a vocabulary more closely rooted in the sounds of the natural world. She captures material electronically, layering textures amplified throughout the space which form an immersive field where figure and ground are in constant flux. The piece reveals an orchestration of shifting drones, aberrant melodies and glistening atmospheres. Harbors has reverberated many spaces around the world, including: Click Festival, Helsingør, Denmark; Transformer Station, Cleveland; MONA FOMA, Tasmania; Centennial Hall, Sydney Festival; The Lab, San Francisco; and Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. Harbors was released in 2020 on the Australian label room40.org on LP/digital and is now also available digitally on theresawong.bandcamp.com.
“...a masterpiece in harmonics, in sonic drift, and a tightly focused narrative line....Fullman and Wong together conjure up rolling fogs and seascapes; they pepper with sonic sleights of hand: are they freight train whistles, even a snatch of tune from some revenant sailor’s pipe? It’s not important to know – the strength of this work likes in the unfettered imagination behind it and in its execution.”
The Wire, Top 50 Releases of 2020
Pitchfork Review, August 12,2020
Review in The Wire, August 2020
“Theresa Wong’s cello tones rattled and hummed and breathed across the space in a startlingly gorgeous juxtaposition with the Long String Instrument. Throughout their performance at the minimalism conference, Fullman and Wong layered the sounds of their instruments into a miraculous soundscape that defied linguistic description. At one point, I realized I was crying. ”
“The piece, entitled “Harbors”, evokes ghosts of renegade string sections and Ennio Morricone’s harmonica motifs. The increasingly colorful mélange of wavering notes and their errant reflections sound like the thrum of vibrant light.”