Sean Noonan: The Open Fund for Music Creators
A composer, improviser and percussionist whose music enthusiastically defies category, Sean Noonan prefers the title “Rhythmic Storyteller” whose music is informed by an eclectic variety of influences, rock opera, avant-garde chamber music, harmolodic jazz-rock, and aleatoric comprovisation.
Bartalk, is a 23 hour durational solo installation for speaking percussionist performed at the Dry Stone Wall Maze in Dalby Forest in June 2021 exposing the psychological effects of 23 hours of daily torture and subsequent the temporal perceptual shifts heightened through my containment in a soundproof booth.
Sean comments ‘I will map the 23 hour solo performance on an electro-acoustic drum kit and later analyze my findings to compose a 60 minute monodrama for the Ligeti Quartet and speaking percussionist to be premiered at Jazzlive at the Crypt in 2022. I will take the position of the unknown inmate gradually succumbing to the effects of solitary confinement, articulated through a series of soliloquies based on collected testimonials from inmates giving the audience an insight into their metaphysical perception of time. I will narrate the piece from behind a soundproof cell, completely isolated from the audience, ensemble and the sound engineer is part of the composition process.’
Bartalk is part of a larger multi-artform project working with sculptor, Peter Maris, in a series of sculptural reinterpretations with QR codes linking to documentation of sculptures hosted online. Bartalk hopes to advocate for those who have suffered this cruel and unusual punishment and to increase awareness, and to spark a dialogue for better criminal justice reform.