Sonic Forest
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Sonic Forest

Lexington, Massachusetts, United States

Lexington, Massachusetts, United States
Band Comedy Avant-garde

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This band has not uploaded any videos

Music

The best kept secret in music

Press


"BONNAROO PRODUCER QUOTE"

I love the Sonic Forest; in the morning it was the place to hang and have coffee while listening to exotic birds, in the afternoon it was a great place to meet up with friends or take a nap (when you shut your eyes you were in an enchanted forest), at night we danced for hours to the continuous drum jams into the early morning." –Ashley Capps, AC Entertainment (Bonnaroo Co-Producer)

- Ashley Capps


"THE BEST OF THE NEW GENERATION"

Christopher Janney, Sound Artist

Using electronic wizardry, Christopher Janney experiments with the relationship of sound and movement. His piece "Soundstair" makes use of a series of electronic sensors placed along the edge of any existing stairway. The sensors activate progressive musical notes, so when a dancer moves up and down the stairs, it sounds as if he is walking on the keys of a musical instrument. His "Tone Zone" uses a synthesizer, a video camera, and an electronic sensing device rigged up so that whenever the daner movces, the synthesizer lets out a osund that reflects the speed and location of the movement. The dancer thus creates his own musical patterns by choosing the moves in the dance.

Janney received a B.A. from Princeton in 1973 in visual arts and architecture and in 1978 was one of the first students to receive an M.A,. in art from MIT. His work has been exhibited at the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art, at New York Symphony Space as part of John Cage's seventieth-birthday celebration, and at other locations in the U.S. and Europe. - ESQUIRE MAGAZINE


"INSIDE RHYTHMS"

The message Janney's "Inside Rhythms" performance sends out is that music is not a thing in itself but instead a quality that adheres to the performer who makes it - like his clothes or the color of his hair. Mr. Janney's music explains what people are like. – Bernard Holland - New York Times


"ACTING AND INTERACTING"

SONIC FOREST... A thing of joy. – Jennifer Dunning - New York Times


"ALL THAT ARCHITECTURAL JAZZ"

Janney's creations are kinesthetic synthesis of sound, color, shape and structure–interactive art scapes in which the observer is also the creator. His work dares you to rethink your relationship to the aural and visual space you thought you occupied. – Peter Hawes - Princeton Review Profile


"MAKING YOUR OWN MUSIC"

One of the festival's goals is to attract audiences with something familiar and entice them to stay for something new, say Jemeth Webster, the director of Lincoln Center Out-of–Doors. For most, "Sonic Forest" will be amongst the unfamiliar, an experience that fuses contrasting sciences. "Janney's work is an extension of the concept of combining engineering and precision of technology with the more parameter-less, freer possibilities of art" she says.

But don't worry. As an audience and participant, the only part you have to understand is that "Sonic Forest" is fun and interactive. So put on your comfy shoes, and leave the purses home – your only mission is to move to the music. – Eunnie Park - The Record


"DANCING THE BYTE AWAY"

When Mikhail Baryshnikov premieres his newest work this month in New York City, he'll be dancing to the beat of his own heart. A device modified by artist Christopher Janney will capture electrical impulses passing between Baryshnikov's head, heart and feet and use them to regulate musical accompaniment, making the dancer's body the conductor. "My work is like a visual Jazz", says Janney.

Amplifying nature's rhythms is Janney;s specialty. He built what may be the largest piece of interactive public art ever–a 180-ft. high mosaic of colored glass–in the Miami airport. What's interactive about it? The mosaic reacts to human contact, emitting sounds of the Everglades. Janney's "performance architecture" has also been played in the New York City and Paris subways, where passengers trigger infrared sensors to set off synthesized bells, flutes and bird whistles. His latest work is more passive than interactive: he's designing a Hawaiin home that is also a sundial. - TIME MAGAZINE


Discography

Media:
•"CBS Sunday Morning" feature
• "Drum of Time" documentary for PBS produced by Tropiculture
• "Extreme Homes" feature for HGTV
Soundtracks/Soundscores:
• CD: "Blue/Green" for Origins/Estee Lauder
Soundscores for the following public artwork installations:
• "Harmonic Runway", Miami International Airport
• "Chromatic Oasis", Sacramento International Airport
� "Whistle Grove" National Steamboat Monument, Cincinnati, OH
� "Touch My Building, Charlotte, NC
� "Passing Light", San Antonio International Airport,TX
Forthcoming Projects:
� "Rainbow Passages", Logan International Airport, Boston, MA
� "Circling", Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport, TX
"Visual Music Project" Soundtracks
� "African Float"
� "JumpUps"
� "Upstairs/Downstairs"

all music �C/F Janneymusic, Inc.

Photos

Bio

Christopher Janney is trained as an architect and jazz musician and has created public interactive sound-light artworks and performances all over the world. "Sonic Forest" is part of his "Urban Musical Instrument" series along with "Reach!", permanently installed on the N-R platform of the 34th St. subway station in New York City and "Harmonic Runway", an interactive 180-foot long walkway composed of 132 10-foot tall sheets of colored glass in the Miami International Airport. He also created "Heartbeat:mb", a performance toured throughout the world in which Mikhail Baryshnikov danced to the sound of his own heartbeat.

"Mixing architecture and music, my interest is to have music wrap around you like a blanket." Janney said. The "Forest" has also been planted at the Bonnaroo Music Festival, in New York City as part of Lincoln Center�s Out-of-Doors Festival and in Pittsburgh as part of that city's Three Rivers Arts Festival. "The challenge at Bonnaroo was to create this communal musical instrument that you not only walk through, but you can play, interacting with others and at times, the drummers."

In addition to his artwork, Janney is also a Visiting Professor at both Pratt Institute and The Cooper Union School of Architecture in New York where he teaches his course titled �Sound as a Visual Medium.�