{"id":10074,"date":"2025-01-26T23:05:37","date_gmt":"2025-01-27T05:05:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/?p=10074"},"modified":"2025-01-26T23:16:28","modified_gmt":"2025-01-27T05:16:28","slug":"soundless-fullman-wong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/soundless-fullman-wong\/","title":{"rendered":"Bloom: A Conversation with Ellen Fullman and Theresa Wong"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Western music is built around concepts of melody and harmony – the idea that one form of sonic expression should come to the fore and the other to sit behind in support. But what if those concepts are not as important as we are led to believe? What if, instead, there is a dynamically evolving sound field where sounds transpire and interact into a more cohesive whole without concepts of dominance or subservience? These ideas lie at the crux of \u2019Soundless,\u2019 the latest collaboration between Guggenheim Fellows Ellen Fullman and Theresa Wong, which will be presented at Roulette, on January 30 and 31, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A key concept of \u2018Soundless\u2019 is what the duo refers to as \u2018bloom,\u2019 a system through which both instruments become a unified whole. This is done primarily by fostering spaces that evoke overtones or subtones to allow new sounds to emerge, effectively forging a new sonic language. Assisting with the surveyance of new sonic terrain is how both Wong and Fullman step outside Western concepts of equal temperament. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the former, this means putting aside her classical training and the common tunings of her cello – and sometimes electric guitar – in favor of Just Intonation\u2019s reliance on whole-number ratios between frequencies. In using this background, along with electronics, Wong has been able to originate an idiosyncratic language on her instruments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Fullman also uses Just Intonation, her approach is perhaps even more revolutionary. There are no conventional standards to apply to her performance as her instrument itself has distinctly little precedent. Since 1980, she has imagined, built, developed, and mastered the Long String Instrument, her creative assemblage of dozens of tuned strings, each over fifty feet long. By rubbing her rosined fingers or placing another of her inventions – the \u2018shoveler,\u2019 an item similar to a massive guitar pick – against its strings, Fullman produces distinctive drone-like tones that reverberate throughout the room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In escaping most strictures of Western conventions, the two artists produce a space where they can better communicate even while engaging in open exploration. The fact Fullman and Wong have a long working relationship of almost twenty years provides a further basis upon which they can rely less on pre-established conventions and more on the contours of their unique expressions. We sat down with both artists to discuss \u2018Soundless\u2019 and their work together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PostGenre: The two of you started playing together in 2006. How do you feel the way you communicate with each other musically has changed the most over the past almost twenty years?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ellen Fullman: For one thing, we felt that to give the cello a unique voice, Theresa needed to decide on different timbral approaches. So, she’s invented and developed an incredible vocabulary of sounds you might not recognize as being from a cello. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My instrument sounds a bit like a cello to begin with. The instruments mesh together to create a composite sound. But there was a period when we were a little unsatisfied with how we sounded together until things started to click in terms of the role that each instrument played. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also got into Just Intonation tuning. After being classically trained, Theresa had to do a lot of research to develop her vocabulary in Just Intonation on the cello.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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