Daniel Menche
Hope and Prey | 2006 | 23:00mins | 3 channel video projection and live sound performance | USA
Daniel Menche (born 1969) is a proud native Oregonian. Since the late 80s he has established himself as a musician with a sense of focus and determination uncharacteristic in a genre known for its randomness and chaotic structure. Rather than creating “noise,” he strives for order and cohesiveness. His presentation of sonic structures is similar to the way a writer depicts a story, an allegory seems to arise, which uses confusion as a symbol for the imaginative process of total sound purity; aural intensity is not a representation of confusion or the chaotic, but a concerted effort to provoke and stimulate the listeners imagination by generating intensely powerful sounds and music.
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Hope and Prey features stunning wildlife cinematography of animals hunting and being hunted. In composing 3 reels to play side-by-side in a panoramic view like that out in nature. It’s a wide landscape where a predator could come at you from anywhere. It is also playing with the fact that predators have eyes on the front of their heads, while prey have eyes on the side of their heads. In this installation the audience definitely has to keep an eye out for danger. The dramatic and sometimes brutal cinematography is transformed and elevated through black and white high-contrast recomposition and a hyper-dynamic score by Portland’s infamous underground composer, Daniel Menche.
Featured in: Animal Mirror
Featured in: NOISE Artist Talk: Science of Sound
Featured in: The Possibility of Nature, Hope in Pure Sound, and Faith in Magnetism
