Heroine Pauline Kim Harris & Spencer Topel

• Pauline Kim Harris & Spencer Topel: Ambient Chaconne (After Bach's BWV 1004):
• 1 Ambient Chaconne (After Bach's BWV 1004): I. — 10:36
• 2 Ambient Chaconne (After Bach's BWV 1004): II. — 08:46
• 3 Ambient Chaconne (After Bach's BWV 1004): III. — 11:29
• 4 Ambient Chaconne (After Bach's BWV 1004): IV. — 11:21
• Deo (After Ockeghem's Deo gratia à 36):
• 5 Deo (After Ockeghem's Deo gratia à 36): I. — 09:28
• 6 Deo (After Ockeghem's Deo gratia à 36): II. — 13:02
• 7 Deo (After Ockeghem's Deo gratia à 36): III. — 07:02
• Total Runtime 01:11:44

Info for Heroine

In reimagining the Bach Chaconne and Ockeghems Deo Gratias, I searched for meaning and connection to the greater, mysterious universe. My collaborator Spencer Topel, and I created an expansive sonic experience. It is as close to stopping time as I can imagine. (Pauline Kim Harris) Ambient Chaconne is an immersive exploration of the J. S. Bach Partita No. 2 in D Minor: IV. Chaconne (BWV 1004). Unfolding over 42 minutes Ambient Chaconne blends live and pre-recorded violin with electronics. Using both human and machine transcription, the Chaconne serves as the structural underpinning to the work, appearing often as small disassociated fragments, and at other times in extremes: consisting of extended passages of sounded or silent materials. As with renditions of the Chaconne by past composers such as Brahms and Busoni, Ambient Chaconne extends the notion of transcription metaphysical, framing the Chaconne both as a musical composition and as a collective-subconscious memory. Deo is an acoustic-electronic transcription of Johannes Ockeghems stunning Deo Gratias devised as a complement to Ambient Chaconne. Notable as a 36-part canon, Ockeghem Ockeghem evokes singing of angels in heaven via an innovation on a traditional canon, using this ancient musical device as a kind of acoustic feedback delay. In essence, our Deo expands this idea of delays to a canon of thousands, in an ever expanding and infinite soundscape, where the melodies eventually dissolve into resonance.

Pauline Kim Harris, violin
Spencer Topel, electronics, sound design

Pauline Kim Harris
aka PK or Pauline Kim is a Grammy™-nominated violinist and composer. The youngest student to have ever been accepted into the studio of legendary violinist Jascha Heifetz, she has since appeared throughout the US, Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia as soloist, collaborator and music director. Currently known for her work with classical avant-punk violin duo String Noise with her husband, Conrad Harris of the FLUX Quartet, she has toured extensively with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, has been a long standing member of the SEM Ensemble and OstravskaBanda in the Czech Republic and has been a guest artist with leading new music ensembles such as Talea, ICE, Alarm Will Sound, Argento, TRANSIT, Object Collection, Glass Farm Ensemble, Ensemble LPR, Wordless Music and Ensemble Signal in New York City.

Committed to the idea that music is one continuous lineage of expression and demonstration of time, Pauline has been dismantling the norm of expectation of a typical classical violinist by performing in concerts presented in museums, churches, nightclubs, out of doors, rooftops, pop-ups to major stages with an openness to genre. As a composer, Pauline searches for a tactile connection between memory and sound. Her music creates a multi-dimensional sonic matrix through composition, transporting the listener to an alternate co-existence. She introduces an environment that alters the listener’s emotional identity to what they are experiencing.

Active in the experimental music scene, her work extends into interdisciplinary worlds, crossing boundaries and connecting visual art, electronics, media, film and dance to music. She has premiered and recorded works by Alvin Lucier, John Zorn, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, George Lewis, David Lang, Du Yun, Annie Gosfield and more.

Crossing over into the rock and pop worlds, she has played and recorded as collaborator and leader for Jeff Beck, Lenny Kravitz, David Byrne (Talking Heads), Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead), Greg Saunier (Deerhoof), Tyondai Braxton, Max Richter, Gordon Gano (Violent Femmes), Jon Brion, Savion Glover, Gabriel Kahane, Mica Levi (Micachu and the Shapes), Jay Z/Beyoncé, Adele, Peter Gabriel, Somi, Jane Siberry, Macy Grey, Laurie Anderson, Björk, Roscoe Mitchell, Max Richter, Rostam Batmanglij (Vampire Weekend), Michael Leonhart, Placido Domingo, Joni Mitchell, John Cale (Velvet Underground), Billy Martin (Medeski, Martin & Wood), Jason Moran, Dan Romer, William Basinski, Jherek Bischoff, Stars of the Lid, Goldfrapp, Chilly Gonzales, Louis Michot (Lost Bayou Ramblers), Kishi Bashi, Nico Muhly & Doveman, Nu Deco Ensemble and with Jónsi Birgisson (Sigur Ros) in the fall of 2019.

Pauline was the first Music Director for the Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zane Dance Company and has been the featured artist for choreographers David Parker, Kora Radella and Pam Tanowitz. She has performed at MASS MoCA, MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, iMOCA, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Guggenheim, The Drawing Center, Paula Cooper Gallery, Barnes Foundation, Brooklyn Museum and Noguchi Museum to name some.

She has appeared at Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Ghent Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, Lincoln Center Festival, White Light Festival, Big Ears Festival, Liquid Music, Jacob's Pillow, Barbican, Miller Theater, Baryshnikov Center, DiMenna Classical Center, Symphony Space, Joyce Theater, Roulette, Issue Project Room, BAM, Sydney Opera House, Library of Congress, FringeArts, Lincoln Center, and Carnegie Hall.

Pauline moved to NYC at the age of 15 to study with Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School and is currently a sought after mentor to dance and drama students through the Juilliard Mentoring Program.

Spencer Topel
is an artist and designer combining sound, installation and architecture. He was educated at The Juilliard School, Cornell University, and later joined the faculty at Dartmouth College as a professor of music. There he collaborated with installation artist Soo Sunny Park on several projects including Capturing Resonance for the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park. This intersectional effort led Topel to develop a body of work over the past ten years combining sound, architecture, and performance. Most recently, Topel was Artist-in-Residence at The Yale Quantum Institute, where he and his team developed the first-ever quantum musical synthesizer.

Booklet for Heroine