The Record

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Part of a broader, fragmentary project composed by several autonomous but complimentary outputs such as the (expanded) book ‘a body as listening - resonant cartography of music (im)materialities’ (Sistema Solar / Teatro Praga), the virtual installation www.abodyaslistening.com, the solo performance ‘a body as listening’ and the lecture-performance ‘Are you there? - resonant cartography of music (im)materialities’, this is composer-pianist Joana Sá’s first solo record since ‘Elogio da Desordem / In praise of disorder’ (2013), as well as the concluding opus of a trilogy that began with ‘through this looking glass’ (2010).

In the meantime, she has been playing a key role in shaping the distinctive sound-world of a small, remarkable group of classically-trained Portuguese creative musicians - beautifully documented in ‘Almost a Song’ (2013), ‘Di Lontan’ (2015) or ‘Turbamulta’ (2018) - which also includes, among others, her long-time collaborators Luís José Martins and Eduardo Raon. And 2020 saw the release of ‘Ways of notseeing’, her mesmerizing duo record with Greek composer-singer Savina Yannatou.

Now back to the solo format, she presents a work of rare expressive power, one which shatters several dichotomies entrenched in our modern ways of thinking: composition versus performance, classical music versus other genres, composition versus improvisation, reason versus passion, mind versus body, and so on.

Like most of the great Western classical composers before the relatively recent advent of the composer/performer dichotomy, Joana is, first and foremost, a composer-performer, but she is so in a radical sense: her performances, either the ephemerous live ones or those that end up being preserved on record are her (publicly accessible) oeuvre. Her music eschews any form of notation, but this is not to say that it does not involve a great deal of prior thought and planning: at least some of it lives in her, exquisitely crafted but in a state of flux, as opposed to something that gets crystallized in a score. (One is bound to wonder whether, say, Beethoven would have at all written down his sonatas had there been recordings in his day.) On the other hand, despite this considerable predetermined dimension, spontaneous composition is central to it as well, making each performance unlike any other. And the fact that, while one would hardly call it ‘jazz’, it is being released by a label commonly associated with that term, suggests that perhaps our currently accepted ways of sorting musical genres are ultimately idle and arbitrary.

There are, of course, several other artists today whose creative process is not unlike Joana’s, at least at the level of generality of the above description. But when it comes to the actual results of such process, she is utterly unique. She has the chops of a classical pianist and the energy of a rocker, and yet, seemingly paradoxically, can be a uniquely self-effacing performer, as if dissolving into sound somehow. She employs electronics and manipulated fragments of recordings as extended techniques themselves, opening up the functions of the piano - is it still a piano at all? - way beyond what is commonly heard, even among other adventurous explorers. That is, this is not merely a case of (subtly prepared) piano plus electronics, etc., but of a single, sui generis instrument, which allows for either extreme delicacy and sparseness or massive - at times even threatening - waves of sound. Through it, Joana creates a highly colourful work, as focused as it is intense, characterized by both stark contrasts and gradual shifts (another paradox?), providing a deep, immersive and profoundly moving listening experience.

João Esteves da Silva

The Book

a body as listening - resonant cartography of music (im)materialities

JOANA SÁ

Ed. Sistema Solar/ Teatro Praga (2023)
Design, HORÁCIO FRUTUOSO
Illustrations (watercolors, digitally manipulated watercolors & others), RITA SÁ
Other design inputs: interferences/intermezzos, ANA VIANA
Proof reading, Francisca Cortesão

QR codes' ex-tension:
Sound pieces & music, JOANA SÁ
Videos (animation), RITA SÁ
Design, ANA VIANA
Audio recordings, SUSE RIBEIRO
Mixing, EDUARDO RAON & JOANA SÁ
Web development, NUNO BENGALITO

Are you there?

Can you touch this?

(Listening is touching at a distance)

This book unfolds from the perspective of a musical practice by taking your body as part of this resonant cartography. It will imply exploring all kinds of (im)possible resonant and vibratory processes.
All entities responsible for this book cannot, however, predict ‘what a body can do’ or take entire responsibility for ‘its’ actions or outcomes.
By navigating the two streams in this book, you agree with the fact that we do not provide the best experience, therefore agreeing to and feeding the possibility of failure.

This book does not use cookies

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The expanded book 'a body as listening - resonant cartography of music (im)materialities' stems from my PhD thesis* but is also an exercise in tearing it apart in various ways. The book is a fragmentary, non-linear and multidimensional object that makes use of very different types of writings/texts and some (punk!) approaches; graphic constructions and deconstructions by Horácio Frutuoso; graphic contents by Ana Viana; illustrations by Rita Sá; music or sound pieces as well as animated videos (by Rita Sá, again) accessible via QR codes.

Affording many types of engagement possibilities, the book is not just about my practice in music and performance, but is an ex-tension of ‘my’ music and performance. You are invited to join in and to experience music not as a mere exteriority:
your body, the first (im)materiality convoked for this resonant cartography of music.

Disclaimer: the idea of resonant cartography is not conceived of as a guiding device, one whose main purpose is to give references for orientation and control in a pre-determined space or music territory, but quite the opposite: it attempts to incite all bodies involved in this sharing process to lose, at some rate, both their x-y-z coordinates of internal/external organization and their internal/external orientation references, in order to open up the possibility for creating other notions of space, body and music territory (not conceivable in a grid-cartography paradigm).

* ‘Listening | the open, trilogy for disruptive bodies - creative processes and the ideas of listening | the open and virtuosity’, Universidade de Aveiro, 2020.

The Virtual Installation

Are you there?
How could you know it is you if the algorithm is not helping either of us in recognition? In what terms can you recognize your ‘self’ after years of (self) extraction?

After listening to the cookies settings, you are invited to explore this virtual platform and find several interactive pages with sound pieces and much more...It is not obvious how to find these contents... please read (i) Resonant Navigation System Manual. The platform does not follow any linear methodology and does not use the usual extractive navigation tools: this means that you will have no option, but to use the intensification of our senses, extra-senses, ultra-senses, non-sense(s).

The idea of resonant cartography is not conceived of as a guiding device, one whose main purpose is to give references for orientation and control in a pre- determined space or music territory, but quite the opposite: it attempts to incite all bodies involved in this sharing process to lose, at some rate, both their x-y-z coordinates of internal/external organization and their internal/external orientation references, in order to open up the possibility for creating other notions of space, body and music territory (not conceivable in a grid-cartography paradigm).

The platform is only available for desktop.

Music (composition & performance), texts & platform conception, JOANA SÁ
Illustrations and videos (animations), RITA SÁ
Design, ANA VIANA
Web development, NUNO BENGALITO

Music & sound pieces:
Audio recordings, SUSE RIBEIRO at Valentim de Carvalho studios
Music assistance (recordings and preparation), LUÍS J MARTINS
Mixing, EDUARDO RAON and JOANA SÁ
Complementary audio recordings, LUÍS J MARTINS

The Solo Performance

A body as listening

by JOANA SÁ - music, text, performance (piano, electronics & others) & art direction - in co-creation with:
Visual conception, DANIEL COSTA NEVES
Installation, HENRIQUE FERNANDES
Movement assistance (performance), TERESA SILVA
Light design, DANIEL COSTA NEVES & TELA NEGRA
Light operation, TELA NEGRA
Sound design and operation, SUSE RIBEIRO
Production, MENOS MUITO MAIS, CRL
Première, CULTURGEST, LISBON, JANUARY 12th 2024
Supported by DGARTES, MINISTÉRIO DA CULTURA, REPÚBLICA PORTUGUESA
Coproduction, CULTURGEST, GNRATION, JAZZ AO CENTRO

Performance is the new-old immateriality: our bodies can engage here and now, space-times converging, touching at a distance. In this process, we admit the possibility of phantom organ exchange and/or transplantation, and vibrant contamination through resonance. For experiencing this performance, you will necessarily consent with this possibility of engagement and you will agree to the fact that ‘your’ resonant body – a body as listening – is taken into account as part of this resonant cartography. We kindly apologize for the fact that our process is not completely new and actually offers a downgrade as compared to previous processes. Who cares, anyway? Are you there, in fact? Where are we? Who are we being? Why would we bother with something we were writing/reading and have already forgotten?

'Are you there? - resonant cartography of music (im)materialities'

Lecture-performance(s)

Music, text & performance: Joana Sá
Video (animation) and illustrations: Rita Sá
Some graphic elements of the video: Ana Viana
Body-listening device: Henrique Fernandes
Sound design & operation: Suse Ribeiro
Light design & operation: Tela Negra

Are you there? - resonant cartography of music (im)materialities is a lecture-performance by Joana Sá where her past, present and future solos and reflections around these works converge and diverge, creating an idea and experience of ‘a body as listening’. The lecture-performance format of Are you there? explores the idea of resonant cartography, where the reflection around the creative processes may become resonance and be experienced as sensation, and resonance may become reflection, pondered analysis, intricate thought. Deconstructing the duality of rationality/sensibility, the processes of reflection and resonance are brought fourth as inscribed within one another.

The lecture-performance has its own overwhelming cookies policy: no cookies, no algorithm, none of the usual alienation are allowed here. But no worries, we promise to shake you to the bones. Stating the body of the spectator and listener as the first (im)material musical element of this resonant cartography, this lecture-performance also deconstructs the idea of music as a mere “exteriority” of this body:
Are you there?

Are you really there?

Work comissioned by Musicamera for Festival Criasons IV, dedicated to the composer Constança Capdeville
Premiere: Festival Criasons, Teatro Aberto, Lisbon, April 2023
Other presentations: Cine-Teatro Paraíso, Tomar, April 2023

Installation

'Are you there? - resonant cartography of music (im)materialities'

Photo © Vera Marmelo

This platform does NOT use cookies

Cookies help deliver the best experience on a website. By using this platform, you agree with the fact that we do not provide the best experience, therefore agreeing to and feeding the possibility of failure.

All entities responsible for this platform inform you that no personal data is collected, analysed or sold to third parties in the course of navigation. In other words, we, the responsible entities, apologize for not extracting or sucking your ‘self’ with a straw nor via any other virtual sophisticated extraction methods.

Since your ‘self’ is not extracted in the course of this navigation, we warn you that, in case of (un)conscious addiction to ‘self-extraction’ or ‘self-extractive navigation,’ the experience provided may cause unpredictable and disruptive side effects.

Music & text, JOANA SÁ
Illustrations & video (animation), RITA SÁ Design, ANA VIANA
Audio recordings, SUSE RIBEIRO
Mixing, EDUARDO RAON
Première: August 24-28 2023 at Lisboa Soa