Humming Experiments

Developed by John Coutanche and Val Klassen from 1995 to 2002, the Humming Experiments project is a series of audio art recordings, videotapes, participatory performances, web casts, and radio broadcast events. The core of the Experiments is a small group of people making vocal non rhythmic music without a score or a beat. 

The sounds created in this way are rich, mostly harmonic tones or long notes, a mix of the frequencies that human beings of various ages and genders generate together.  We discovered and developed a process whereby people can tap into innate musical ability without rules, agendas, or scores, and produce profoundly interesting and moving sounds.

Common experiences: Some say it is meditating in a group.  People humming together find that their egos are displaced.  On more than one occasion, participants have commented on how they lost the sense of themselves within the group while humming. It felt mystical, magical. At the same time, it was supremely silly. Many of our attempts ended in laughter. 

John, based in Winnipeg but living for a time in Balbriggan, north of Dublin, introduced Humming Experiments to members of a barbershop group Chordbusters in the wood-paneled map room of Ardgillan Castle. This session, featuring four wonderful Irish tenor voices, yielded several wonderful tracks including  Sustaining

Val, in Winnipeg, met with a small group of aficionados, experimenting with radius, location, toning, harmonic overtone singing, and other vocalizations. One recording was made in a warehouse freight Elevator as the shape and size of the humming site were adjusted.

Video and Sound recordings:  Eight short videos comprise the Humming Experiments series. One of these is 'Oh! Hum (hopefully). A limited edition CD, documenting the efforts of the previous seven years was produced in 2002.  The CD and the videos are available through Video Pool Distribution.

The process is still a polite mystery:  a spontaneous activity that comes from deep within people's sense of harmony and quiet, a process that yields a natural, harmonious sound without script or score.

The Humming Experiments project was funded by the Canada Council for the Arts. 

John Coutanche and Val Klassen April, 2004.