Benjamin Forest's guest appearances

Benjamin Forest

Art + Music + Technology

Christopher Reid

Matt Black

Matt Jackson

Geert Bevin

Devin Fleenor

William Fields

Pauline Oliveros

Brad Garton

Mark Vail

James Grahame

Nathan Moody

Marcel Wierckx

Christine Papania

Rob Ray

Doug Geers

OwlTail

When I first got the pointer to the band Ariadne, I did a drive by - and then a double-take. They describe themselves as an "experimental sacred music duo"; while that resonates, it was also a little bizarre. Sacred music is very seldom experimental, and vice versa. But a quick tour through their Soundcloud and Bandcamp sites helped me understand better - they create a haunting mix of ambient, industrial, noise, drone and operatic sounds that don't necessarily sit in any particular category, but still sound approachable and lovely. When we spoke, I learned that, rather than through-composed, this work is the result of improvisational practice using prepared texts. That sort of rattled my imagination about how something like this could be created; I always think of the 'song' and the 'tracks' coming first, but Ariadne finds a way to weave it together in the process of practice. They also implement the work as WebGL visual works, which you can experience at their main website (http://www.ariadnedigital.net/). The images match the music in both its depth and the touch of the disturbed, and it totally sucks me in. Enjoy this discussion with a couple of choir kids turned into performing media arts adrenaline junkies, and imagine the sounds of massive renderings in the background as we speak! Enjoy!

When I first got the pointer to the band Ariadne, I did a drive by - and then a double-take. They describe themselves as an "experimental sacred music duo"; while that resonates, it was also a little bizarre. Sacred music is very seldom experimental, and vice versa. But a quick tour through their <a href="https://soundcloud.com/ariadne-music" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Soundcloud</a> and <a href="https://ariadne-music.bandcamp.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Bandcamp</a> sites helped me understand better - they create a haunting mix of ambient, industrial, noise, drone and operatic sounds that don't necessarily sit in any particular category, but still sound approachable and lovely. When we spoke, I learned that, rather than through-composed, this work is the result of improvisational practice using prepared texts. That sort of rattled my imagination about how something like this could be created; I always think of the 'song' and the 'tracks' coming first, but Ariadne finds a way to weave it together in the process of practice. They also implement the work as WebGL visual works, which you can experience at their main website (<a href="http://www.ariadnedigital.net/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.ariadnedigital.net/</a>). The images match the music in both its depth and the touch of the disturbed, and it totally sucks me in. Enjoy this discussion with a couple of choir kids turned into performing media arts adrenaline junkies, and imagine the sounds of massive renderings in the background as we speak! Enjoy!

Podcast 198: Ariadne (Christine Papania and Benjamin Forest)