Breakfast at Epiphonemes

Intention

BREAKFAST @ EPIPHONEMES is a Sound Opera that feasts upon new musical forms.  It is a collaboration of Honey’s vocalese, Dan’s nylon-string guitar, and Penn’s sounding.  The three performers begin with Penn’s text as a basis for natural voice: spoken, sung and plucked.  Free improvisation is then progressively worked into a composition of complex harmonies.  This soundscape depends on the colours of the text as it develops into a libretto. 

Live, the performance of BREAKFAST @ EPIPHONEMES will lead the audience to the experience of spontaneous, inventive dialogue beyond familiar musical and linguistic boundaries.  Sounding is a kind of vocalization that allows for any eventuality.  It’s a hoot to create and perform. The live performances of BREAKFAST @ EPIPHONEMES are not replicas of the CD, but include spontaneous expression as the performers interact with the audience and encourage their participation in the exploration of sounding. 

Sounding explores the sub-verbal language of music and speech in widening waves of individual expression in our culture.  Caught off-balance between personal and communal conflict, how are we situated?  When words fail the enormity of emotion, the inner space can be intense, indeed.  Sounding is a last resource for creative expression.  Such communication can resolve the tension between inner and outer worlds through musical play.  This libretto explores the deepest regions of the human psyche. 

BREAKFAST @ EPIPHONEMES cracks open musical expectation into an evocative new form. Harmony will emerge through synchronized entrainment, as our three voices find their note in this Sound Opera.

 
 

Sound Samples of the Trio

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TwoLips

Berlin1945

WaitLate

Recorded and mastered at Psychospace Sound.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Past Events

Poets for Peace @ Oasis, Toronto, College at Spadina July 25, 1999,

Artists' Comments


Penn Kemp, writer/performer:
"This suite presents several ways of approaching peace, encroaching on peace. The first two pieces are about Kosovo and war. The second series is from Utter Silence, written during a month-long meditation in India. I was, as they say, sitting a retreat. Hence the title of the suite is 'Sitting: On De Fence Systems.'"

 Dan Sargeant, composer:
"This music was designed around the different psychological characteristics of Penn's poetry."
 
 

Audience Responses

Sharon Singer, poet:
"Penn Kemp speaks with the voice of the inner child, primitive shrieks of joy and wails of pain and despair. Counterpointing this wild rhythm of human desire is Honey Novick’s clear mellifluous song and Dan Sargeant's bountifully creative guitar. This trio will lift you out of your seat and take you on a journey of discovery of your own longings."

This performance audio-taped by Psychospace Sound and video-taped by Chris Mezenes.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 

Honey Novick 

Honey Novick's eclectic career has taken the fortysomething Novick from New York's famed Carnegie Hall to CTV's Romper Room. She has represented Canada at a cultural festival in Japan, put together a sold-out concert honoring folk singer Phil Ochs, and produced the Womanvoice '94 multi-media memorial program honoring Montreal's slain engineering students. 
Go to Honey's CV
Honey's Sound Samples 

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Penn Kemp 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Penn Kemp has been proclaimed a foremother of Canadian poetry by the League of Canadian Poets. A prolific artist, Penn has to date published 17 books and had 4 plays produced. As sound poet and workshop leader, she has performed in arts festivals around the world. She has been writer in residence in New York state; for the Labrador School Board; at U. of Victoria, BC; at Flesherton Library in Ontario and at SNDT University in Bombay. She has just completed a novel about Toronto Island. At present, she is giving workshops based on Sounding and her forthcoming book on creativity, What Springs To Mind. 
Go to Penn's CV
Penn's Sound Samples 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Danny Sargeant 

              Danny's CV
Dan Sargeant recently graduated cum laude from York University. While at York he was awarded the PC Music Award for creative and musical excellence. He is past president of York University's Music Student's Association. At the the Hummingbird Centre for the Arts he played an event that included dancers from Canada's National Ballet and from Europe. His composition for dance was choreographed by Claudia Moore and danced by Katherine Duncanson. His 1998 tour of Ireland included performances of non-Irish music at Irish pubs in Dublin and on the Dingle Penninsula. He is the music therapist assistant in a Toronto nursing home. He is currently exploring new sounds that he is applying to musical projects including "Breakfast at Epiphonemes" in Toronto.