Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Spell Casting

In conjunction with the exhibition Atmosphere for Enjoyment: Harry Bertoias Environment for Sound, MAD commissioned New Yorkbased musicians Lizzi Bougatsos and Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe to create sound and video recordings with Sonambient sculptures. Atmosphere for Enjoyment explores Bertoia s sounding or tonal sculptures. Collectively called Sonambient, these are works made of metal rods that make lush, resonant sounds when struck. Beginning in 1968, Bertoia began setting up an eighteenthcentury stone barn on his property in Barto, Pennsylvania, to house and record these works, and this is where Bougatsos and Lowe made their recordings. On April 11, 2016, Lowe performed this piece, We Echo Now His Love, at the Sonambient Barn. Under the alias Lichens, he creates live, spontaneous compositions often described as otherworldly. Both artists work, influences, emphases on percussion, ambient music and dedication to improvisation made them compelling performers to relate to and animate the sounding scul