Christoph Collenberg/Jakob Gengenbach — Un|sounding The Self(DVD & Book)
From a cursory look at the back cover blurb and a flick through the book, I initially assumed that un/sounding would be a heavily conceptual examination of the entwined acts of walking and composition, and whilst it is overall, the book and film differ noticeably. The latter, an hour long, operates really as a gentle introduction to Shultis and Shepard, offering biographical information, discussion of the role that walking plays in their respective work, and interaction with that work. It would be fair to say that the insights are few and arguably shallow; the film is not in any way a rigorous portrait of the duo. Whilst there are passages which drag, not least those which combine electroacoustic sounds with ‘experimental’ film, un/sounding feels rather short. This is possibly because its latter half features much footage of Shultis performing, and the mind perhaps expects similar treatment of Shepard after this. This doesn’t arrive, and instead Shepard’s trumpet lines appear scattered throughout the film, to little real effect. Shultis’ performances are also somewhat underwhelming, as something so site-specific (inside a chapel) is reproduced and reduced through a camera and microphones; the film is visually and aurally lavish, but it can’t give the sense of being present there - especially since Shultis’ performance involves him walking around the audience and exploring the space. The accompanying book, un/sounding the self - a field manual, interacts considerably deeper with its subject than the DVD. Here, the two composers write at length on their practices, with added commentary from the filmmaker, Christoph Collenberg, and Bernd Herzogenrath, the professor who invited Shultis and Shepard to participate in their ‘Theory Into Practice’ course at Palacký University in Olomouc, Czech Republic. I won’t attempt to summarise these pieces, but they present much more rigorous investigations and explications of the web of ideas and themes of un/sounding: walking, composition, John Cage, H. D. Thoreau, and silence, to name the most obvious. They grant an intellectual/ideological depth to the composing duo that the film doesn’t really evidence. Perhaps the most notable passage of the book is where Shepard, having apparently suffered a collapsed tour, recalls asking himself what exactly constituted a ‘tour,’ and then deciding that if he ‘performed outdoors, slept in a tent, and walked from place to place’ that would indeed be a tour - genuinely inspiring and provocative thoughts.
To speak plainly, there were points during the DVD where I cruelly asked, ‘Why am I meant to be interested in this?’ - a question that was quickly answered by the book. This rather raises the issue of what the film is precisely for. Perhaps it serves as a introduction to the printed materials, but I’m sure it’s not intended that way. The book is certainly richer for having seen the DVD, but it also makes the film seem redundant, shallow, and ponderous. So whilst I certainly recommend the release for those interested in modern composition - especially those intrigued by the Wandelweiser Group - and indeed field recording, I actually think the book alone would be compelling reading for anyone interested in sound.