Your Custom Text Here

ONSHORE TRILLING:

What to Do When the Earth Sings the Bruise

A performance cycle. This research project, originated by interdisciplinary artist, vocalist, performer and composer Lisa E. Harris, will develop into a composition based on vocal performance and movement, that investigates the relationship between voice, Earth, body, vibration, space and ritual. The name is derived from the Offshore Drilling industry which is a primary source of the economy from my native land, Houston Texas. It is also a huge industry in Norway as well. 'Trilling' is a musical term of oscillating two pitches back and forth at a fast speed, and lip trilling is a basic vocalisation used  in vocal pedagogy. The ‘Bruise’ is related to the blues, a music genre and musical form originating from the Deep South in The United States by African Americans; it’s inventors were enslaved persons, former enslaved persons, and their descendants.  I am interested in site specific live improvisational performance done onshore, in close proximity to very productive offshore drilling sites around the world. While creating a spatial duet with the Earth that is both regenerative and sacred,  this composition will have its structure in the replication of the Life Cycle of an Oil and Gas Field. This composition will also be rooted in social practice, bringing Environmental awareness, tools for restorative place making, language and oral histories together with improvisation, folk music, music technology, music therapy,  experimental composition and performance practice.