photo: Traianos Pakioufakis
Soundless
Soundless is a work composed by Ellen Fullman (Long String Instrument) and Theresa Wong (cello, electric guitar) which explores the essence of string resonance with new territories of harmony, timbre, and rhythm to create a space of connection, empathy, and multiplicity. The piece combines the spectrally undulating drones of the Long String Instrument, rhythms created by Fullman's uniquely designed 'box bow' and 'shoveler', and cello and electric guitar expanded into dimensional sound fields through four-channeled amplification. The piece was commissioned by room40 and premiered at the Art Gallery New South Wales in Sidney and Brisbane Powerhouse in 2023.
photo by Kjeldo
Harbors
Harbors is a collaboration of composers Ellen Fullman (Long String Instrument) and Theresa Wong (cello), which draws inspiration from the soundscapes, stories and atmospheres that manifest around bodies of water that propagate exchange. Structured around the extended harmonics of the open strings of the cello, Wong and Fullman utilize subsets of these tonal areas to create distinct sonic environments within the piece. Fullman’s Long String Instrument, a stunning installation of over forty strings spanning seventy feet in length, places the performers and audience inside the actual resonating body, transforming the architecture itself into the musical instrument. Wong has developed techniques that take the cello beyond tradition into a vocabulary more closely rooted in the sounds of the natural world. She captures material electronically, layering textures amplified throughout the space which form an immersive field where figure and ground are in constant flux. The piece reveals an orchestration of shifting drones, aberrant melodies and glistening atmospheres. Harbors has reverberated many spaces around the world, including: Click Festival, Helsingør, Denmark; Transformer Station, Cleveland; MONA FOMA, Tasmania; Centennial Hall, Sydney Festival; The Lab, San Francisco; and Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. Harbors was released in 2020 on the Australian label room40.org on LP/digital and is now also available digitally on theresawong.bandcamp.com.
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“...a masterpiece in harmonics, in sonic drift, and a tightly focused narrative line....Fullman and Wong together conjure up rolling fogs and seascapes; they pepper with sonic sleights of hand: are they freight train whistles, even a snatch of tune from some revenant sailor’s pipe? It’s not important to know – the strength of this work likes in the unfettered imagination behind it and in its execution.”
“Theresa Wong’s cello tones rattled and hummed and breathed across the space in a startlingly gorgeous juxtaposition with the Long String Instrument. Throughout their performance at the minimalism conference, Fullman and Wong layered the sounds of their instruments into a miraculous soundscape that defied linguistic description. At one point, I realized I was crying. ”
“The piece, entitled “Harbors”, evokes ghosts of renegade string sections and Ennio Morricone’s harmonica motifs. The increasingly colorful mélange of wavering notes and their errant reflections sound like the thrum of vibrant light.”