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Jun 28, 2010 Andrew Bird By Hong Le

Musician Andrew Bird and sculptor Ian Schneller have teamed up to develop Sonic Arboretum, as part of the Guggenheim Museum’s summer concert series Dark Sounds debuting in New York on Thursday August 5th. Dark Sounds is a three-part series of live music performances accompanying the exhibition Haunted: Contemporary Photography/Video/Performance currently on view at the museum through September 6th. Andrew Bird and Ian Schneller’s Sonic Arboretum is the second part of the series, which is a one-night performance with Bird’s music.

The Sonic Arboretum as a symphonic field consisting of a forest of sorts featuring four 8-foot tall horns, dozens of 3-foot tall hornlings, a two-headed spinning speaker horn, and the sonic sculptures resemble Victrola speakers that will blanket the museum rotunda floor and project sound skyward so the music will be delivered solely via these sculptures, creating a landscape pleasing to both the eyes and ears. Andrew Bird will direct different horn groupings via loops played live on violin.

It’s complicated to imagine, but it’s promised that it will be a beautiful audiovisual landscape. In Andrew Bird’s words (via a press release): “The din of many voices. When the mind focuses on a single voice, it is forced to track its trajectory. When there are too many to process it submits, but never fully relaxes. Echolocation is always engaged. Dozens of horns, a sonic field of poppies, an experiment of sound and sculpture.”

This ghostly, melancholy series kicks off July 15th with Balkan gypsy folk of Beirut, followed by Andrew Bird and Ian Schneller’s Sonic Arboretum on August 5th, and concludes with The Cinematic Orchestra on September 3rd. Tickets are limited and available through online ticket sales here. It’s $25 for members and $40 for nonmembers.