Coppice was founded by Noé Cuéllar and Joseph Kramer in Chicago in 2009, as an inquiry into the capture and generation of music and its relationship to its physical sources.

Its compound studies include Bellows & Electronics (prepared pump organs, shruti boxes, and tape processors) between 2009–2014, and Physical Modeling & Modular Syntheses between 2014–2018; focusing on the interactions between direct and reproduced sound, and the perceptual links between original and emulated sources, respectively.

Its third study in Phonography & Fiction (in progress since 2018) scrutinizes the dynamics between its previous two studies, and their relationship to architecture and time: the acoustic preservation and obsolescence of the Yerkes Observatory’s refractor and reflector telescopes in Williams Bay being the locus of investigation.

With sustained interest in sound’s capacity to cross domains, Coppice crafts pathways between music and technology in a cross-disciplinary language, resulting in work that is an overarching documentation of experimental music in-formation. Operating in cycles of instrument construction and modification, recordings, and live presentations, its productions incorporate sound design, sculpture, installation, software, images, and video.

Draw Agreement

A nesting time capsule that cycles

Folded time and layered space

Sound, mechanical rooms, time travel

Refraction, Reflection, and Diffusion

Rotation, Turning, and Flux

A spatiotemporal synthesis of Coppice’s auditory and musical experiments (2009-2022) with custom, prepared, and modified musical instruments and devices.

This 3CD set abridges Coppice’s first three studies, artificially inserts them into the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, WI, and binaurally captures their diffusion across Elastic’s CLEAT (Chicago Laboratory for Electroacoustic Theatre), a 16-channel 96-speaker sound system.

CD1: Abridgements

Circumpass (2009-2014)
Compass (2014-2018)
Hourglass (2009-2022)
At the Poles (2014-2016)

Composed by montaging audio quotations from Coppice’s first two studies, «Circumpass» representing Bellows & Electronics (2009-2014), and «Compass» representing Physical Modeling & Modular Syntheses (2014-2018). Representing Phonography & Fiction (2018-2022), «Hourglass» abridges Coppice’s overarching sonic palette across all three studies (2009-2022). «At the Poles» is a conjunction of two unaltered solo performances, one for an Estey pump organ (cir. 1935, prepared in 2013) by Noé Cuéllar (recorded in January 2014), and one for modular synthesis by Joseph Kramer (recorded in May 2016), each of which has been separated from «Soft Crown» from “Vantage/Cordoned” (caduc., CA, 2014), and «Here» from “Green Flame” (caduc., CA, 2018).

CD2: Observatory Sound

Rotations in Refractor (Simulated Diffusion in the Likeness of the Yerkes Observatory)
Turning in Reflectors (Simulated Diffusion in Objects against the Yerkes Observatory)

Composed in 2021 using virtual acoustics of the Yerkes Observatory, through which are simulated the diffusions of «Circumpass» and «Compass». Spatial models and field recordings recorded on May 16 and 24, 2018 at the Yerkes Observatory, Williams Bay, WI.

CD3: Sonic Observation

Clocks in Flux (Elastic Capture-Source Diffusion post-CLEAT)

Composed in 2022, combining a binaural recording of Coppice’s performed diffusion of «Hourglass» and «At the Poles» using CLEAT (Chicago Laboratory for Electroacoustic Theatre), a 16-channel 96-speaker sound system, and 2.1 PA system, with additional headlock audio not heard during the performance. Recorded live on July 8, 2022 at 8:43 PM, at Elastic Arts, Chicago, IL.

Voices: Mark Booth, David Toop, NNN Cook, Jenny Vallier. The production of «Sonic Observation» was supported by an Individual Artists Program Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events.

Thank you to Doyal “Al” Harper, Ed Struble, Jesse Wirth, Kathryn Schaffer, Geoffrey Alan Rhodes, The Chicago 00 Project, The Princess Grace Foundation, Seismograf, Jenny Kendler, Brian Kirkbride, the departments of Art and Technology Studies and Sound at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Nathan Keay, Mark Booth, Jenny Vallier, Stephan Moore, and Sébastien Gautheron.

Format: 3CD set
Label: Ferns Recordings (ferns_stem_15)
Artwork: Coppice
Duration: 170 minutes
Date: January 2023