Sound Around explores the meaning of music at Broad Art Lab

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Want to make some noise? Do you have a rock ‘n’ roll disposition, but think guitar music is old and in the way? Don’t fret, you oddly specific hypothetical reader — the Sound Around at Broad Art Lab has you covered.

Inspired by the avant-garde stylings of artists such as John Cage, Pierre Schaeffer and Sonic Youth, local musician Corey Kellicut will lead a group demonstration that promises to display a creative use of contact microphones, ultimately proving how any household object can theoretically become an instrument. Kellicut performs around Lansing with different solo projects and his band Tweed Wolves. Picture a group jam with musicians of all skillsets, using whatever’s available to them.

“A symphony orchestra musician will be there, as well as at least one elementary school student. They will both be on equal footing, one listening to the other and vice versa,” Kellicut said.

Sound Around will have a loose, improvisational feel. Kellicut called it a “hootenanny.” He wants attendees to feel uninhibited in terms of what sounds they can potentially create.

Kellicut first became acquainted with this obscure and daringly guerilla form of music-making after spending an afternoon with his younger brother, Tom. The pair joyously wasted away a Saturday playing with a contact microphone, a small recordings device that allows one to pick up frequencies from an array of random objects.

“Twenty years ago, I was visiting my brother, and he had just made a contact microphone out of a Piezo disc for his guitar. We realized we could put it on any object that could produce vibrations,” Kellicut said. “We spent all night putting the mic on things around the house. Especially in the kitchen — there was a lot of good sounds in there.”

Contact microphones, when used as part of a noise rocker’s arsenal, often produce polarizing results. For example, one can choose to harvest the tranquil sounds of running water, or the cacophony of a buzzsaw striking a rusty sheet of metal. And Kellicut has no real preference, he says with a grin on his face.

“I could go either way. I’ve played in some loud, noisy punk bands, and I’ve also recorded loops of pouring water and other tranquil sounds,” Kellicut said.

For the purposes of Sound Around, Kellicut is providing several random objects that can be hooked up with contact microphones. Some examples include cutting boards, metal mixing bowls and other metal cookware that can be filled with water.

“They have a really nice bell sound to them,” Kellicut said.

But people can bring anything they’d like. Kellicut said a friend of his is bringing a broken typewriter. For devices that prove incompatible with contact microphones, attendees can substitute a regular microphone. Four-track recorders and iPads loaded with recording apps will be available to capture the resulting harmony or cacophony.

“I really want this to be improvised,” Kellicut said. I’d like to see people listening to each other, so you’re not just experimenting with sound on your own, but you’re also listening to what other people are doing and interacting with them.”

The Sound Around

Free

Sunday, Jan. 26, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

MSU Broad Art Lab

565 E. Grand River Ave., East Lansing

(517) 884-4800, broadmuseum.msu.edu/artlab

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