Tanner Menard has published an audio interview with ambient artist Robert Rich:
this interview was recorded over a telephone conversation and is between robert rich and myself, tanner menard. i have decided here to present my questions to rich in written form rather than in recorded form. my decision to do this was based on two factors. robert rich’s portion of the conversation stands out and is an important message about his original conception of the sleep concert. i believe his voice deserves to stand alone, and see this as a sort of theory lesson in sleep concerts for the future. and secondly, the recording qualities of each side of the phone conversation were too vastly different to work as a publishable sonic item. i hope that many more sleeping events will come about because of this new world wide interest in sleep concerts. as robert rich points out in this interview, all night musical events have been happening for thousands of years, and sleep concerts are one way in which we can bring sacred conscious raising ritual back into our modern lives through art and sound. i hope that these recordings can stand as a model for composers and artists in the future who wish to carry this process of sleep music into the future.
Tanner Menard plans on presenting Sommeil: Concert for Sleep in New Orleans on April 11-12.