Sound Theory

Algorithmically-created beats, atmospheric soundscapes and ambient orchestral music flood the darkened rooms and hidden corners of Fisher Theater and tantalize the ears of listeners walking in the building. This new concert, in which audience members roam the premises and participate in the performance, was featured here for the first time by The Democracy of Sound (DOS), a recently created musical club.The co-heads of The Democracy of Sound, Sean Lee and Scott Hermenau, formed the idea to have a concert at the theater while working on the fall production of “Frankenstein,” and realized they could utilize one of the building’s biggest downfalls for a performance.Upper Scott Hermenau said, “We were thinking of doing a concert that went away from the school’s typically straight-laced perspective—you have to show up, sit down and stay the whole time, and not be loud. People kept on complaining about the theater because it had such a leakage of sound, but we realized those negative aspects could be turned into something positive if we had a new-age, different concert.”“The concert is trying to make not the people the performers, but the whole building,” Hermenau added. “The vision is going to manifest itself by walking through the entire space and combining everything you have heard to truly experience it all together. People show up and listen to all the specific performers in specific places.”With its winding hallways, confusing layout and multitude of rooms, there seems to be no place better than Fisher Theater to present this groundbreaking performance.“Fisher came up as such a ripe venue because of its heterogenous, labyrinthine layout, which provide all types of wonderful connections and potential pathways for the audience to migrate thru and for the performers to arrange themselves,” music instructor Jon Sakata, adviser of DOS, said. “Everyone, performers and audience together, become nodes in a larger network of ‘pervading’ and ‘invading’ the theater's many zones.”Both DOS members and the Exonian community greatly enjoyed the unconventional show. “A lot of people were talking about this concert, and it involves a bunch of awesome music,” lower Erica McCormick said. “This type of performance works a lot better since you don’t have people sitting there, unentertained, listening to something they don’t like. This is much more fun for someone who doesn’t want to be motionless for two hours.”Senior Kieran Minor, who played the guitar in the backstage bathroom, also noted the ingenuity behind this event. “It is taking different kinds of genres and people and its nothing structured, something we don’t have much of around here,” Minor said. “It’s a really cool opportunity and the first of many cool events DOS is doing.”With this concert, in which sounds are allowed to leak and fuse together as they do in the natural world, DOS attempted to introduce a style of presentation foreign to the world of music at Exeter and throughout the world. In addition, the concert did not highlight the artists themselves, but the space as a whole. Although this is the first of its kind at PEA, many more thought-provoking and distinct shows are expected from DOS in the future.“Where are we as a ‘culture’ when doing such a performance is somehow seen as unusual or novel; but all around us, in habitats of every type, this is only life,” Sakata said. “DOS simply wants music—simultaneous sonic sharings—to be a part of our living together in this habitat we call, the Academy.”