Saturnian

What the music I love expresses to me is not thought too indefinite to be put into words, but, on the contrary, too definite. – Felix Mendelssohn, Letter to Marc-Andre´ Souchay, 15 Oct. 1842

Saturnian explores a similar precision of feeling through the entanglement of drawing and sound. Twelve sheets of paper were saturated with water on the floor before ink was thrown across them, producing effects beyond the artist’s control. The drawing is suspended exposing its back, where the ink has settled differently, creating a mirrored, unpredictable surface. A small bone conduction speaker attached to the reverse plays a composition by Rebecca Jones, who responded to the drawing as if it were a graphic score. In this way, the drawing becomes both the source of inspiration and the amplifier for the music: image and sound resonate together in a rare, tactile way, as vibrations pass directly through the paper into the viewer’s body. The soundscape—primarily piano, interwoven with incidental noises such as saxophone and birds—extends the drawing into a temporal, performative dimension.

The work grew from the image of Saturn’s rings, which resemble a vinyl record, and from practices that translate data or images into sound. The title preserves and softens this initial reference: although connected, it is not the same as saturnine—something Saturnian can also be saturnine (and vice versa).

Creating sound with Saturnian involved combining a series of improvised first readings or approximations of the piece with more contemplative and considered sections. The intended spontaneous elements focused on the drawing’s textures, visceral evocation, and gathered sound from the practice rooms in Oslo. The more mediative parts explored the dispersed lines and dense clusters in isolation. Constellations and starting points were crafted using Miles Okazaki’s 62 diatonic fragments and his comprehensive scale book, 351 shapes. Other tools applied to unpack and navigate this piece included observation windows (card with cut out frames) and wire hoops. – Rebecca Jones, 2023

Below you can listen to Rebecca’s soundscape alongside images of the work.

A new version of Saturnian was performed live in front of an audience at Our Big Picture, Grimsby, in 2024, with Jones interpreting a new drawing that took the format of a concertina a book, emphasizing the work’s relationship to notation, sequence, and reading.