New Thoughts on Marching Bands (2015-ongoing)
New Thoughts on Marching Bands are a series of participatory, place based compositions to be performed by musicians and non musicians alike. The score ties music to locations, telling a story of each place and being inseparable from that geography.
The scores are written on a map instead of on a traditional staff. The map gives notes, simple melodic patterns and ideas through both traditional demarcation and the use of graphic elements. The marching band ad libs sounds within the musical framework given on the map as they move through each place. The score involves different levels of structure from distinct melodies, to completely improvised sections. The end result is a combination of emotionally driven noise and melodically driven narrative.
Participants can bring their own instruments, borrow instruments, or interpret the piece through their voices or the sound of their footsteps as they march. In this way these pieces hope to be accessible to all ages and abilities, musicians and non-musicians alike.
Divergence (2019)
Divergence is a sound piece that explores the difficulties of leading a migratory life.
Divergence was initially created for live performances on Drone Day 2019.
The video was filmed in Sara Wray Enns’ winter home of Prince George, BC (on the unseeded territory of the Lheildli T’enneh). The auditory inhales were recorded in Prince George as well.
The drone sounds in the background were recorded through the process of Enns’ spring migration up to Dawson City, YT (on the traditional territory of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in).
The exhales were originally performed live in Dawson City for performance at the Klondike Institute of Art and Culture, and broadcasted live through Skype to Prince George for a live performance at the Omineca Art Centre. The exhales in the video were recorded in Dawson City, YT, the day Enns returned to Prince George during her fall migration.
Video work by Eliza Houg
Flushed (2019)
As private and public spaces washrooms are witness to both benign and profound moments, from intense conversations to shopping on instagram. Flushed explored these conversations, thoughts and ideas through audio, text and visual installations in Yukon School of Visual Art washrooms during the Yukon Riverside Arts Festival gallery hop.
sarawrayenns.com 