The Unchecked Desert

A reflection on the California desert and the sounds that surround that space.

Activated field recordings are played back alongside a live performance by Cassia Streb on viola with other live sounds by desert plant detritus. The result is a series of scenes from the desert soundscape that slowly unfold: a branch scraping through the sand, bottlecaps shaking, a croquet mallet on a chain link fence. The leaves and grasses in the performance space create a second layer of sounds that anchor the listener in the space while the long tones from the viola create a satellite companion to the recordings.

Cassia Streb is a sound artist who lives and works in Los Angeles, California. She writes music for specific situations and for special places. Her work is often composed for friends and colleagues in order to highlight aspects of their musicality that she admires. Cassia plays viola, small percussion instruments and found objects in her work with improvisation and interpretation of notated scores. Some of her recent projects include Sound House, a modular, interactive sound and puppet piece and co-founding Music for Your Inbox, a digital concert platform that presents the work of experimental visual and sound artists.

cassia-streb.com