Experimental Indoor Sounds of Nature

It’s been a good year in the Southland for experimental music at the Schindler House--a.k.a. the MAK Center--in West Hollywood. The center has increased its commitment to such performances, including last summer’s outdoor “sound” concert series.

On Tuesday, the action, minimal and coolly conceptual such as it was, moved indoors for a short yet provocative concert, presented in conjunction with Villa Aurora.

In this electro-acoustic program, the lines of demarcation and sound origination were deliberately fuzzy. In fact, the most strangely moving piece may have been Austrian composer Peter Ablinger’s “Weiss/Weisslich 18” (White/Whitish 18), based on the sound of trees in the wind, suggesting various shades of white noise. In his careful scheme, 18 different types of trees are given 40 seconds of play, broken into three groups. Between the systematic plan and the natural source, a meditative air, both stark and warm, filled the room.

On more traditional instrumental turf, composer James Tenney, also heard from in the summer series, had his solo piece for alto flute, “Seegersong No. 2,” premiered by Ellen Burr. In this long arc structure--a common form for Tenney--a slowly unfolding line teeters between tonality and its opposite, and intensifies before its long sighing finale.

Percussionist Jeanette Wrate produced a hypnotic series of sonic swells on three tam-tams in Austrian composer Nader Mashayekhi’s 25-minute “American Graffiti,” which was much more cerebral than the title might imply.

Flutist Burr returned to float unusual tones in the room on Daniel Rothman’s “The Garden Party,” juxtaposed with a static video of a parakeet cage and a soundtrack both concrete and manipulated. Reality and the perception of nature were elegantly thrown into question, a running theme this night.