Interview with sound artist and curator crys cole.

crys cole was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in 1976. A self-taught sound artist, cole began exploring experimental music in the 1990s. She pursued Interdisciplinary studies in Fine Art at Concordia University 2002-2006. She has performed live extensively in Winnipeg, Vancouver, and Montreal including venues such as cre8ery (2009), Ace Art Inc (2009), VIVO Media Arts Centre (2009), Access Gallery (2008), BLIM (2005), and Or Gallery (2003). In June 2009, cole made a two-week tour in Paris, Berlin, Cologne and Brussels, performing solo and in collaboration with Rinus Van Alebeek, Julie Rousse, Clare Cooper and Christine Senaoui. Recently she has also toured in Italy with Oren Ambarchi (AU) + Massimo Puppilo (IT). She's currently the artist director of Send+Receive Festival in Winnipeg.

How did you start making sound art? What was the inspiration?
You studied fine arts in university. Did you ever study music? Is music part of your background?

I began listening to experimental music in my teens, and I have long been a music enthusiast and collector (of many types of music). I always dreamed of making music myself but felt stunted by the fact that I didn’t play any instruments. I dabbled a bit with percussion and turntables in my late teens and then when I moved to Montreal in 1998 I found an incredible community of artists with whom I could explore sound. I began playing with broken electronics and turntables and developed my sound organically from there. I have always been an intent listener, with very strong aural memories from my childhood, I can’t explain why but sound and music have always moved me in a very deep way. The visual arts of course play a very influential and inspiring role in my sound practice as well. I am a hugely inspired by movements like dada and fluxus which informed and birthed many extraordinary sound works/artists. Also, I have always appreciated the mundane, the banal… I think that this reflects in my work.

How did you find your style? Why are you attracted to minimalistic sounds? How do you choose your "instruments"?

For me it happened very organically. I began making sound work that was somewhat noisy and raw, but it quickly developed into something more minimal, more discreet. I find that minimal textural sounds can be so transfixing when allowed the space to really listen to them. I enjoy the more concentrated listening that comes from minimal playing. This said, I am not opposed to more elaborate and complex work and I love exploring this when improvising with other artists. For me, though there is a centering effect in paring down my palette when playing. Reducing the inputs and sources to still create a captivating piece is a challenge that I enjoy. As for how I select my ‘instruments’ – I am always playing with objects around me, be it scratching on the table I’m sitting at, or tapping glasses and dishes… I have a selection of tools that I use to ‘play’, and enhance, any source that suits my fancy in the moment. I always come with certain ‘instruments’ to a performance, but always find a way to incorporate objects or the room itself into the performance. This is one of the spontaneous aspects of my improvising that I enjoy… not knowing what else will present itself until right before a performance.

You've traveled to Europe last year. What was it like performing in Europe in contrast to in Canada?

My experience performing in Europe was wonderful. Of course every venue and community was different, but I do feel as though there is openness there for more experimental music that is still developing here in Canada. I could be wrong, but the arts play a very important role in many European countries and through this I feel that the understanding or at the very least the openness to creative exploration in many forms is supported more widely. There isn’t as strong of a need to categorize the work or have it be consumable.

How is the sound art scene in Winnipeg? Aside from working as the artistic director of Send + Receive Festival, why do you choose Winnipeg as your base?

Winnipeg has an extremely vital visual art community. This said, there is a very, very small sound art scene here. Essentially most activity around sound in Winnipeg is based around the send + receive festival, which has been active here for 12 years now. There is a committed audience, with new people coming each year, but the core group of artists who work in sound has stayed relatively small. I choose Winnipeg as my home base for the time being because it allows me to run this incredible and unique festival.

Have you lived in Vancouver? What's your impression of the Vancouver sound art scene?

I have indeed. I lived in Vancouver from 2002 – 2005. I developed my sound practice as a solo artist very much while I was in Vancouver, where as in Montreal I mostly worked in collaborative free improv settings. Vancouver has a strong core of interesting artists working in sound and in the last few years I have seen great community development there as well as excellent new events popping up. I think like most cities these movements ebb and flow, diminishing due to lack of venues or artists leaving the city, but then a new venue, gallery or driven artist/programmer will appear on the scene and rejuvenate things again. Vancouver has always had a great history of interest in sound with people like Hildegard Westerkamp, R.Murray Schaefer and Barry Truax in academia and places like the Western Front, Sugar Refinery, BLIM and more creating spaces for experimental sound performance. It also has a rich history of noise music and jazz.

What's the biggest challenge working as a sound artist/improv musician? What's the biggest challenge being a female sound artist?

Hmm… the biggest challenge I think is probably the same challenge all artists I know face, which is finding the time to focus on your own practice!
As an improviser in Canada, the community is fairly small and in order to play often, particularly when you live in a smaller city like Winnipeg, you must be able to travel to perform and to play with other artists. Of course travel is wonderful, but not always easy or affordable.

As for being a woman in the field, I can’t say that it has ever really been an issue for me. Certainly I am aware of the smaller number of women working in sound + experimental music, but the field that I play within is in a sense genderless… what I mean by that is that the artist is somewhat faceless, the image of the artist is almost irrelevant, the sound comes first. I have however, had positive responses when people come across my work and find out that I am a woman, because there are less of us playing in free improv and working in sound. People definitely seem interested in hearing female ‘voices’ in the field.

How do you relate your work at send + receive Festival to your own practice? Is it difficult to combine the two? Or do they compliment each other?

s+r is the perfect place for me in many regards. I am so passionate about sound art and having the opportunity to bring artists from around the country and globe to present here in Winnipeg is extraordinary. It compliments my practice in that it is constantly developing my links to the global community and building strong connections to my peers. Of course I do not perform at the festival (I did once in 2007 prior to becoming involved), but the connections and opportunities that it has brought to me, as well as the inspiration acquired from the work presented at the festival is invaluable. Certainly there is some conflict, when you are wearing two hats in a related field, but for the most part I think that they compliment each other quite well.

What is your favorite sound? Which other sound artists would you recommend if you were to put together a play-list?

My favorite sound… oh wow, impossible… there are so many! I am constantly captivated by sounds occurring around me, and love to sit and listen to a wood fire burning and my old steam heaters spontaneously making music.

As for a playlist, I do this every week with send + receive radio – which I host Sundays on CKUW 95.9 FM. Hard to do a definitive list but that said, some of my favorite artists (who have inspired my work) would be, Keith Rowe, Walter Marchetti, Eliane Radigue, Evan Parker, Akio Suzuki, Fernando Grillo, David Jackman (Organum), Alvin Lucier… the list goes on…

Anything else you want to share about your work?

Just something that I wanted to elaborate on about my work is that my approach really emphasizes the act of listening, a sense that we use at all times, to the point that we barely notice so much aural activity around us.

By working with microsonics and ‘environmental’ sources, I like tuning the audience (and my own) ears back into subtle and perhaps insignificant sounds. Heightening peoples’ awareness of these small gestural sounds also opens their ears up to the sounds around them and to the sounds that they are generating as well. During my solos, i see this as a collaboration, in a sense, with the space and the audience.