performances Archives — Sound of Listening

Binaural Sound Therapy and Talk

Posted by: mikronesia

04 Jun

Join us for a special Sound Healing Night led by Michael Reiley, a Therapeutic Musician and Deep Listening® Facilitator.

This binaural sound healing will be based on the principles of therapeutic music, a tradition with ancient roots supported by contemporary scientific research. This approach has the potential to relieve anxiety, reduce stress, and cultivate an inner sense of ease and calm.

The healing will be composed of two distinct phases. The first portion of the evening will be devoted to a discussion about the nature of sound healing with time for questions and group discussion. After a quick bio-break, participants will then be invited to settle into a comfortable position and simply receive the vibrational support of Michael Reiley’s amazing binaural sound healing. A sample of his work can be found by clicking here. It’s recommended, if possible, that you listen to this concert using headphones in order to fully experience the healing effect of binaural beats. A discussion of potential health benefits of binaural beats can be found here. (If you don’t have access to headphones, it’s OK, you’ll still derive considerable benefit from this experience.)

Date: Thursday, June 17, 2021
Time: 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm EST
Cost: $20.00 (or $30 Buddy Discount — Two attendees for the price of 1-1/2)
Location: Online

Teacher:
Michael Reiley is a composer, musician, teacher, Therapeutic Musician, and Deep Listening® Facilitator. With over 20 years of experience as a keyboardist, producer, composer, and performer, his work explores the nexus of inner and outer soundscapes as a mode of transpersonal connection and oneness. His music uses techniques and technologies such as drones, binaural beat frequencies, color therapy, data sonification, field recording, tape loops, sacred geometry, esoteric frequency ratios, alternate tuning systems, extended improvisations, sound healing instruments, and more traditional instruments like piano, hand pan, and synthesizer. Michael teaches at the Center for Deep Listening® at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and leads somatic listening workshops around the world called Listening Bodies with his partner Monica Gentile.

Virtual New Year’s with Fidget

Posted by: mikronesia

Categories: dance • live streams • performances

31 Dec

Hello everyone, we wanted to take a moment to say hi, wish you a happy holiday and new year! Listening Bodies did not offer any in-person workshops this year, but we were creating videos, online experiences, and planning for the future.

The first thing we wanted to share with you this holiday season is the “Meditation on Light” written by Monica Gentile (read by Michael in English and Italian by Monica). It’s a lovely guided meditation exploring the sensorial nature of light during this deep wintertime.

Also while we were in Philadelphia for several months this spring, due to the pandemic, we were happy to live near and spend time with the wonderful dance/media company known as Fidget. This year Fidget will be hosting a Virtual New Year’s Eve Party called Age of Aquarius co-hosted by Forbidden Fruit. Listening Bodies will premiere a new video dance piece we created called “A Song the Earthworm Sang”. This piece is dedicated to Deep Listening founded by Pauline Oliveros and is a reference to a poem she wrote called “The Earthworm Also Sings” found in her Anthology of Text Scores. Please consider purchasing a ticket to raise a toast and enjoy hours of art and entertainment for this virtual party in the comfort of your own space.

You can view the video we shared here:

Sending you love and light for a happy 2021,

Monica and Michael

Listening Bodies

Sensing In Festival

Posted by: mikronesia

Categories: performances • teaching • workshops

10 Dec

Listening Bodies was delighted to share a half-day workshop and a evening concert with the Sensing In Festival organized by Movement Artisans and the Axis Syllabus community in Berlin. In this workshop we synthesized some classic Deep Listening® exercises like Zina’s Rhythm Circle and the Tuning Meditation with some of our own inquiries like Monica’s Tuning the Ear as well as some new pieces involving the synesthesia of touch and hearing with live music by Michael. Check out more over at Listening Bodies.

signaltonoisemeditation

Posted by: mikronesia

Categories: installation • performances

17 Oct

Hello everyone, a quick announcement about a new piece I’ll be premiering at the Site/Sound: Revealing the Rail Park Festival commissioned and presented by American Composers Forum, Mural Arts Philly, and Friends of the Rail Park. The piece is called signaltonoisemeditation and will be performed by me on electronic instruments. The 45-minute piece explores the sonic history of telecommunications in Philadelphia. I have a personal family history with telephone technology as my grandmother, grandfather and both my parents worked for the phone company here in Philadelphia.

I’ll be performing at the site of the new installation by Carolyn Healy and John JH Phillips called Aspect 281. Their installation (photo below) is inspired by the history of railroad and signaling technology in Philadelphia. It’s a beautiful and immersive experience and worth experiencing on its own!

The Site/Sound Festival is fantastic and features three weeks of live music along with site-specific media installations along the path of the in-progress Rail Park. Check out some previews in the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philly Voice.

signaltonoisemeditation
Saturday Oct 19, 7:15-8:00 PM
990 Spring Garden Street (East Lot)
Philadelphia

Here’s a preview of the festival:

Listening Bodies at Tanzfabrik

Posted by: mikronesia

Categories: dance • performances

29 Jun

Monica and I have spent two months living in Berlin focusing on our work and the Listening Bodies project. We taught a nice workshop here at Lake Studios Berlin. We’re doing a movement and sound duet this weekend at Tanzfabrik. Afterward, we will be touring and giving workshops in Croatia, Denmark, UK, Ireland, and Italy for the rest of the summer. Check out our new website for more info: Listening Bodies.

Also , I was honored to have a short remix in this latest project from Cities and Memory focused on outer space (to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the US moon landing). Hear my remix of John F. Kennedy’s famous speech about going to the Moon.
Listen to Space

Listening Bodies + Giving Tuesday

Posted by: mikronesia

Categories: news • performances • support • teaching

27 Nov

Hello, thank you for opening and reading this email. I know the amount of end-of-year-holiday emails can be overwhelming!
TLDR
Click this link:
https://igg.me/at/listeningbodies
watch and donate!
Today is Giving Tuesday. I wanted to tell you about an Indiegogo campaign I just started with my collaborator from Listening Bodies.

As I developed more and more as an artist and practitioner of meditation, I found a natural calling for teaching and that people were interested in my life experiences and what I was sharing. After I completed my Deep Listening certification I found a synthesis of my music and meditation practice where they were no longer separate. However, one section of my practice and teaching that was missing was body practices… until I met Monica Gentile.
Her teaching style and areas of expertise (somatic, movement, dance, yoga (Hatha and Laughter)) fit perfectly with what I was teaching. Very organically and effortlessly, we planted the seeds of what is a holistic and integral practice called Listening Bodies.
We’ve taught in Philadelphia and Berlin this year and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. We taught classes for dancers, a sound walking class, an ASMR class and will lead a 2-day workshop in a few weeks here in Berlin.
We have been invited to bring Listening Bodies to Mexico. We will teach our workshop at residencies, schools and project spaces in six locations in Mexico and two in Costa Rica. We will be paid small fees and offered a place to stay. However, we need to pay our own travel costs… thus the Indiegogo. A grant we were applying for did not work out, so we’re asking for your help!
If you’ve read this far you are a dedicated and supportive person! We need to raise $2500 for our flights from Europe and back and flights, buses, and taxis around Mexico and Costa Rica.
If you are reading this email you may have supported my work in the past. So now during this time of giving we are asking for more support to help grow our family of Listening Bodies to include artists and communities in Mexico and Costa Rica.
At a minimum check out our Indiegogo page and video (the end is funny 🙂 https://igg.me/at/listeningbodies

Have a safe, peaceful and light holiday.
With love from Christmassy Berlin, Michael and Monica

P.S. Please feel free to respond to this newsletter email. I read all the responses and I love hearing from you. Also please feel free to add me to your own mailing list to keep up to date with what you’re doing and staying connected.

Berlin Projects

Posted by: mikronesia

Categories: performances • recordings • sound design • talks • workshops

22 Nov

Good morning or evening friends. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the US! I hope this day is filled with the feelings of gratitude and abundance for the collective interdependence of life. I am halfway through my three-month residency at GlogauAIR in Berlin and I just wanted to share some projects in my life for which I am grateful.

Spektrum Performance

When I arrived in Berlin, I performed at one of my favorite venues in Berlin: Spektrum. I gave a concert of my field recording landscapes sounds where I created a surrealists collage of environmental sounds from around the world during my travels. I also made a video of found footage from around the world wide web that I showed at the performance. I am very grateful to Aude Françoise from SCOPE, Ienke at Spektrum and DJ Solitue who presented a mix of former Liebig12 residents and for connecting me with Spektrum last year.

Scope Sessions

The second event I did was a talk on my work and process at Scope Sessions. I focused on my work synthesizing Deep Listening, meditation, Buddhist philosophies, field recording, and ambient music. I also played some samples of my work. It was very well received and help crystallize some things for me in my world. I am also very grateful to meet the host Tobias Raayoni Last.

Speaking at SCOPE Sessions

Red Bull Session

Last week was very busy for me here in Berlin! I welcomed two close friends to town at the same time. My collaborator from Mixes from the Field, Sharon Renee Stewart was in town. We met some Deep Listening friends, did some walking and field recording. At the same time, my old buddy and music legend King Britt was in town. We hung out for three days, recorded an episode for my podcast, and recorded at Red Bull Studios Berlin. I’m super grateful to King for inviting me to the recording session with Hainbach, Christina Wheeler and Clara Hill where I got to play one of my favorite instruments, the Fender Rhodes piano! The sessions were magical and the sound at Red Bull was extraordinary. I can’t wait to hear the final mixes of this collaboration.

Sharon recording at Templehof

The crew at Red Bull Studios

Listening Bodies Project

This time in Berlin has allowed me to deepen my working relationship with choreographer/dancer/movement researcher Monica Genitle. We organically came together to develop a teaching framework that combines my music and Deep Listening practices and her somatic body practices. We’ve done two classes here in Berlin. One at Lake Studios Berlin for dancers and one sound walk workshop at GlogauAIR and SomoS (we had a fairytale-like sound walk in the first snow of the season at night). We will do one more class exploring synesthesia and ASMR as listening body practice at Liebig12. And on Dec 10/11 we will offer a two-day workshop at Tatwerk in Berlin. We will have more exciting Listening Bodies news next week about our plans in 2019!

From the Listening Bodies Sound Walk along the Paul-Lincke-Ufer
ListeningBodies.com for more information…
Once again, thank you all for your support.

Have a safe and peaceful holiday.

<3 MRM

Summer of Listening

Posted by: mikronesia

Categories: installation • news • performances • talks • teaching • workshops

14 Jul

Happy summer everyone. Thanks for opening this email and at least skimming the first line 😉

I had an amazing time in Europe these past two months. I did a 3-week tour with William “Bilwa” Costa which took our Un/Natural Fields project to Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Austria and Poland with support from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. After that, I did another set of shows with singer Katrine Faber in Germany and Denmark. I’m still waiting on some documentation to be posted, but I will share some live recordings and videos soon. I have plans to collaborate on more projects with both artists in 2019.

Faber McDermott performing at Spektrum in Berlin. Photo by Carl Krüger

I’ll be back in Berlin for a three-month residency at GlogauAIR working on and (finally) presenting a version of Echozoo this fall. Until then I’ll be in Philadelphia and I’m doing a series of workshops and concerts in the coming weeks centered around mindfulness and listening.

Photo by Shawn Theodore, a fellow Artist in Residence

Before I get into the workshops, if you’re in Philadelphia this week, please check out the closing party for an amazing photo and sound installation I was honored to be a part of. I was an artist in residence at the Village of Arts and Humanities SPACES program. As part of that residency, I created music and sound design (along with the band Ill Doots) using people’s voices and basketball court field recordings from the Hartranft neighborhood in North Philadelphia exploring the culture of the past, present, and future of the courts for the show, Home Court: The Hartranft Basketball Court Revival. Check out the SPACES website for more info. The closing party is Wednesday, July 18, 6-8pm at The Village of Arts and Humanities gallery space.

The Art of Listening
Springboard Studio
530 Carpenter Ln, Philadelphia, PA 19119
Sunday, July 22, 11 am – 4 pm
Suggested Donation/Danā $20
Event Info

A day-long class exploring meditative states of listening consciousness led by composer and dharma teacher Michael Reiley McDermott. Through listening, we can develop an intimate connection to our environment, each other and ourselves. In this day-long retreat, Michael will take us through listening exercises, periods of silent meditation, Dharma talks, performance scores of singing and sounding and a sound walk. The practices of Listening Consciousness are rooted in Theravada and Zen Buddhism, vipassana meditation, the Deep Listening techniques of Pauline Oliveros, Thich Nhat Hahn and the music and philosophy of John Cage.

No meditation or musical experience necessary. Beginners are welcome.

Healing Frequencies
with Maraliz Campos and Michael Reiley McDermott
Magick City
37 Box St. Brooklyn, NY
August 4, 9pm-11:30
$15 / pre-show // $10 / door
Facebook Event | Tickets

A night of healing frequencies and intentional dialog about listening, time and consciousness. Maraliz Campos and Michael Reiley McDermott, sound practitioners/musicians, present a discussion and concert and sound journey across aural landscapes with filtered and reimagined field recordings from Michael’s recent travels and artist residencies in Thailand, Myanmar, India, Germany, Latvia, Iceland, United States and Brazil.

Part two is a meditative ambient journey from Paraguayan-American artist Maraliz with crystal/Himalayan bowls, rattles, original samples, synth, vocals, tuning forks, etc.

Listening Bodies
with Monica Gentile (Lake Studios Berlin) and Michael Reiley McDermott
Mascher Space Cooperative
155 Cecil B. Moore Ave. Philadelphia
August 11th, 11am – 3pm
$10 / Before August 1 // $15-20 / After August 1
Tickets | Facebook Event A workshop exploring states of consciousness and embodiment. Open to dancers, musicians, artists, yogis, and meditators.

Europe Summer Tour 2018

Posted by: mikronesia

Categories: performances • workshops

14 May

Hello from beautiful sunny Berlin. I just returned from Kaunas, Lithuania where I was in rehearsals with William “Bilwa” Costa for our upcoming tour, more on this below and this week’s overnight sleep concert at Lake Studio Berlin!

“Meditating on Sound” in Kaunas at Pirmi Šilainiai. Photo by Daina Dieva

Overnight Sleep Concert

This Saturday I’ll be playing an overnight concert of ambient music for sleeping, dreaming, being and becoming. The space at Lake Studios Berlin is perfect for a deep night’s sleep listening subconsciously to slowly evolving soundscapes. The space has high ceilings with long skylights that will allow natural night elements to paint the sky. Also, there’s a surround ceiling mounted sound system. It’s in the quiet Friedrichshagen neighborhood of East Berlin which is very tranquil. Please join me for a night of serene lullabies and inner exploration.

Please bring a pillow, blanket or sleeping bag. Lake Studios has plenty of tatami mats to sleep on. Arrive at 21h to secure a spot, have some tea and get to know the other concert goers. Music will start around 22h.

OVERNIGHT SLEEP CONCERT with MICHAEL MCDERMOTT
19 May at 21h to 20 May at 6h
Lake Studios Berlin
Scharnweberstrasse 27, 12587 Berlin, Germany
15-25€
Facebook Event

The Unheard Sea

While preparing sounds for this sleep concert, I got inspired to re-score a film by friend and collaborator Alex Bond. Alex did the live video projections for my first two sleep concerts. I love his work and think this new music goes well with his hazy visual dreamscape of oceanic disintegration.

Watch the Video

Un/natural Fields Tour

I’m very excited to team up with my old colleague and friend William “Bilwa” Costa for a tour through the Baltics and Central Europe.

Un/natural Fields is a new project in which Michael McDermott and William “Bilwa” Costa juxtapose two solo projects, the organic imagined landscapes of the McDermott’s Echozoo works in progress and Costa’s unnatural field recordings. Together they create an imaginary listening experience akin to magical realism.

Audio: https://soundcloud.com/bilwa/sets/un-natural-fields

Madame Claude, Berlin, Germany May 21
MOKS, Mooste, Estonia May 24
MIM stuudio, Tallinn, Estonia May 25
UNDER / Electronic Musik Festival, Riga, Latvia May 26
Skaņas dienas (Sound Days) Festival, Liepaja, Latvia May 30 – June 2
BB 15, Linz, Austria, June 5
Rozkurz, Wroclaw, Poland, June 7
Osobliwy Poniedziałek, Krakow, Poland, June 8
Kolonia Artystów, Gdaǹks, Poland, June 10

Landscapes Live

Posted by: mikronesia

Categories: performances

03 Apr

Hello everyone, I’m back from three months of traveling, listening, creating, sharing and exploring in Thailand, Myanmar and India. I’m excited to be back in Philadelphia for the month and looking forward to sharing lots of sounds with the world!

Recording in Manila, India in the foothills of the Himalayas.
First up, two events the weekend of April 13, a solo concert and a day-long retreat / sleep concert!

I’ll be playing a solo show at Event Horizon at the Rotunda. For this show I’ll be joined by my old friend and artistic collaborator William Fields on real-time visuals. This show will feature a live presentation of my Landscapes work. In this series I work with field recordings from environments and decontextualize them using “sonic photography” techniques to explore the intersection of inner and outer landscapes realized through memory, emotion, time and place. This show will feature recordings and sonic memories from Thailand, Myanmar and India. I can’t wait to experience these sounds on the nice sound system at the Rotunda and with Bill’s realtime visuals, it’s going to be something else! (Below is an image of Bill’s work, check out his website williamfields.com for more of his amazing AV work).

Event Horizon
Friday April 13, 8pm
Juan Garces, BEEP, Mikronesia w/ William Fields
The Rotunda
4014 Walnut St, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104