‘Three Songs in Search of a Voice'

Performance offers glimpse into the dreaming mind Chester — The Chester Historical Society will present “Three Songs in Search of a Voice,” a performance by Al Margolis and Lisa Barnard, at 5 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 17, at the 1915 Erie Railroad Station in historic downtown Chester. This performance is a workshop of an eventual larger piece that incorporates live and prerecorded sound, video, voice, and movement. Through the adaption of Barnard’s dream with text, sound, and movement, the audience will catch a glimpse into the landscape of a dreaming mind and the progressions of conflict and resolution in the midst of dreamtime. Lisa Barnard will perform vocals, dreams, text, and movement. Barnard received her bachelor of arts in performance studies at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. She has been studying music and performance independently in the Hudson Valley for the last six years, collaborating with local musicians, actors, puppeteers, and visual artists. She is currently working at the Deep Listening Institute as the events coordinator and is studying dream work and Egyptian mythology/divination with Ione and Andrea Goodman. She has dedicated her craft to exploring the open field of vocal expression through music, spoken word, dream work and sound art. Al Margolis will be providing live sampling and backing tracks. He is a label manager for Deep Listening Institute, XI Records, and Mutable Music; plays bass guitar in the long-lasting, legendary punk/post-punk band The Styrenes; and continues his work as If, Bwana. If, Bwana has been active since 1984, making music that has swung between spontaneous studio constructions and more process-oriented composition. He has recorded or performed with Pauline Oliveros, Ione, Joan Osborne, Adam Bohman, Ellen Christi, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Jane Scarpantoni, Ulrich Krieger, David First, Dave Prescott, Hal McGee, Sarah Weaver, Hudson Valley Soundpainting Ensemble, and Amoeba (Raft) Boy, among others.