George Rahi
Artist in Residence June 2022
George Rahi (b 1987, Philadelphia) is a composer and interdisciplinary artist based in Vancouver, unceded Coast Salish territories. He uses self-created and altered instruments as a method of exploring the intersections between acoustic and digital technologies, modes of listening, and spatial and architectural thinking. His work includes installations, instrument making, solo + ensemble performance, and works for radio, theatre and public spaces. His work has been presented by SPEKTRUM (Berlin), Regenerative Feedback Festival (Rotterdam), Kunst-Station Sankt Peter (Cologne), Fusebox Festival (Austin), Institute for New Music of the University Mozarteum (Salzburg), and Vancouver New Music among others. He has been an artist in residence with the Locus Sonus Research Group (Marseille), hcma architecture (Vancouver), and EMS (Stockholm).
air
Created from various pipe organ recordings made across North America and Europe, Air conceives of the organ as both a ‘traditional’ and ‘radical’ instrument capable of producing new sound worlds. Inspired by the acousmatic aspects of the organ, the harmonic structures, drifting motions and anomalous textures of the recordings were deconstructed into an abstract and imaginative realm, proposing new timbres and spatial designs. The project establishes parallels between the acoustic and digital spaces of instruments and speakers, and explores perceptual qualities of multi-channel sound systems and its methods of immersive listening as continuous with a variety of historical modes of listening.