An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene SHHH!! Ensemble

• Frank Horvat (1928 - 2020): An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene:
• 1Horvat: An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene: Causes, 1.1 Negative Energy03:39
• 2Horvat: An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene: Causes, 1.2 If Trees Fall in the Forest03:00
• 3Horvat: An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene: Causes, 1.3 Industrial Farming02:59
• 4Horvat: An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene: Causes, 1.4 Home Sweet Home03:00
• 5Horvat: An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene: Causes, 1.5 Transportation03:59
• 6Horvat: An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene: Causes, 1.6 War, What Is It Good For?03:40
• 7Horvat: An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene: Symptoms, 2.1 Garbage01:51
• 8Horvat: An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene: Symptoms, 2.2 Batteries Not Included01:57
• 9Horvat: An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene: Symptoms, 2.3 Entitlement02:00
• 10Horvat: An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene: Symptoms, 2.4 Weather Report02:59
• 11Horvat: An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene: Symptoms, 2.5 Food Inc.03:01
• 12Horvat: An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene: Symptoms, 2.6 Excess02:56
• 13Horvat: An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene: Symptoms, 2.7 The Cost04:54
• 14Horvat: An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene: Solutions, 3.1 Switch Off02:28
• 15Horvat: An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene: Solutions, 3.2 Regenerative Agriculture02:32
• 16Horvat: An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene: Solutions, 3.3 Wind Turbine00:27
• 17Horvat: An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene: Solutions, 3.4 Transportation00:31
• 18Horvat: An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene: Solutions, 3.5 Vote00:27
• 19Horvat: An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene: Solutions, 3.6 The People vs. Big Oil00:31
• 20Horvat: An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene: Solutions, 3.7 Eating Healthy00:31
• 21Horvat: An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene: Solutions, 3.8 Repair/Reuse01:29
• 22Horvat: An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene: Solutions, 3.9 Education01:00
• 23Horvat: An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene: The Outcome, 4.1 Healthy Planet04:57
• 24Horvat: An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene: The Outcome, 4.2 Healthy People05:20
• Total Runtime01:00:08

Info for An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene

An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene is a fearless work. It focuses on the environment from an auditory perspective, presenting a catalogue of our created world’s sounds by tallying the noises, echoes, reverberations and refrains associated with environmental degradation that leads to climate change. The sequential recordings of traffic, machinery, drilling, fracking and more serve as a backdrop for musical responses and reflections from the piano and percussion instruments, that simultaneously respond, reflect and develop the soundscape journey from one of hostile discord to one of reconciliation and peace. The audience is faced with the sounds of our man-made environment, stripped bare of visual distractions, and taken on a journey of action and possibility. We see this as a way to reach people on a whole new, visceral level. As humans, we get to decide what sounds we take forward with us into a new era and which ones we resolve to leave behind.

"Frank Horvat has been successfully exploring states of the human condition in contemporary times…This prolific composer keeps surprising us with diversity and an extent of musical expression, language and themes…his message is clear: music is an important tool in raising the level of positivity and hope on this planet as well as in our individual lives. Change is possible." (Ivana Popovic, WholeNote Magazine)

SHHH!! Ensemble
Carl Talbot, sound editor
Kristan Toczko, art director

SHHH!! Ensemble
is the piano/percussion duo of pianist Edana Higham and percussionist Zac Pulak, an Ottawa-based duo dedicated to the creation of new and innovative programs for that combination. Zac and Edana pride themselves on presenting programs that are as accessible as they are groundbreaking by commissioning works by exciting and creative new Canadian voices while collaborating with luminaries such as John Beckwith, Jocelyn Morlock, and Kelly-Marie Murphy. SHHH!! Ensemble has performed from Western Canada to the Atlantic provinces, appearing in venues such as Ottawa’s Shenkman Arts Centre, Calgary’s Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall, Toronto’s Trinity Church and Edmonton’s Convocation Hall.

In 2017 and 2018, SHHH!! Ensemble developed their unique “avant-accessible” programs through residencies at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and Belgium’s Vormingscentrum Destelheide with the additional support of the Canadian Music Centre and the ARTicipate Endowment Fund. The National Arts Centre, the Health Arts Society Ontario (Concerts in Care), OrKidstra, and more have partnered with SHHH!! Ensemble to present these captivating programs for students and community members, which integrate arrangements of classical repertoire, immersive participatory pieces, and a selection of specially commissioned works.

SHHH!! Ensemble’s provocative “Spirits” program premiered at the Canadian Music Centre in January 2020, following a week-long residency there, and has since toured at concert venues and universities across Canada. “Spirits” is a mixed program of J.S. Bach, Andy Akiho, Jocelyn Morlock, Micheline Roi and more which reveal the composers’ reflections on the nature of creativity, meditation, as well as Scotch whisky and the beyond, and was called “truly virtuosic and intense” by Toronto’s Confluence Concerts.

In early 2020, SHHH!! Ensemble was accepted into the prestigious Evolution: Classical residency at the Banff Centre. This led to major 2020 highlights, including a live-streamed National Arts Centre #CanadaPerforms concert, the world premiere of JUNO-winning composer Jocelyn Morlock’s “Spirit Gradient” with the Tuckamore Chamber Music Festival in Newfoundland, a multidisciplinary collaboration with the Ottawa New Music Creators and the Ottawa International Writers Festival, and a CBC Radio 2 live-for-broadcast performance with Toronto’s Music Mondays.

This album contains no booklet.