the libarynth

A work in progress and basket of ideas for the flow of Smoke & Vapour http://fo.am/smoke_vapour

The menu as published on 20131114

Aperitif: Effervescent and crispy

Drink

• Sparkling non-alcoholic drinks: eg. Sparkling Jasmine Tea or Chose (fresh grapefruit juice and tonic water with smoked ice cubes)
• Sparkling lightly alcoholic drinks: eg. lightly fermented infusions, sparkling sake

Food

• Smoked potato skins
• Smoked pistacho bread with carrot with carrot reduction
• Charred peppers in granular dust (smoked dukkah & popping sugar)
• Smoked quail eggs in shell
• (Smoked tempura muscles)

Sounds (pre-recorded, served on the same trays as the food)

• sound of the food
  • bubbling
  • evaporating
  • crunching
  • cracking
  • …SW soundscape for FOUR channels (four portable
  • speakers & four mp3 players NIK PLS CONFIRM that we have access to this)

Place: entrance, in front of the green glass

Posture: standing, walking

Actions: Hand washing and drying on low tables (kneeling), sipping a drink, tasting bite-sized amuses, mingling

Props needed:

• water infused with herbs/oils (thyme, rosemary, bitter mandarin), a few bowls, long cloth and table for hand washing & drying.
• coat hanger
• 4 trays with food, drinks and speakers
• …

Isolation Ward: synaesthetic and meditative

Drink

• cedar incense smoke, incense lit before people arrive
• woody essential oil (rosemary, cedar) infused in hot salty water, evaporated over a hot stone (drinking through nose & skin)
• vapour distilled herb water (sage and mint with a few drops of lemon and basil seeds), served before the food in a pipet
• we need a small cup of light green tea (gyokuro or matcha?) with the rices…

Food

• four cold steamed rices seaweed/samphire/icelandic moss/thyme
• a warm smoked muscle consommé

Sounds (sounds of the water on the rocks, generative granular synthesis, from speakers under or next to chairs, perhaps small, barely audible, invisible live interventions)

• sounds from the source (resembling):
  • forest
  • coast
  • sea

SW - improv based on cross-fade with cobblestone steam sauna sounds NIK - souce sounds played on the same 4 portable speakers and 4 mp3 players as in previous piece. So this would be a separate ID track which can be cued off stage.

Nik & SW: Stage set B = portable speakers on the trays are placed at positions selected for optimim listening by the the 12 separated guests. SW

Place: under the high roof, in front of the metal panel

Posture: sitting on a chair, alone

Actions: Slowing down, listening, tasting, breathing

Props needed:

• 12 chairs
• 4 small speakers from the trays (left on the floor)
• 2 large cobblestones
• 12 small warm round stones
• 2 flasks with hot salty infusions
• 12 pipets
• 12 containers (or a skewers?) for cold starter
• 12 earthen bowls for soup
• hand sanitiser for after the starter (just a few drops)?
• …

Tavern: dynamic and absorbing

Drink

• 1 beetroot cocktail (with the garden)
• 1 glass of red wine (with the mushrooms)
• water (still/sparkling)

Food (we need to make something the serving and eating of this quite light/etherial, even though ingredients might be stodgy)

• upon arrival smoked tea sorbet
• steam: a garden in the middle: steamed root vegetables layered with gravel and soil in the middle of each table, on plates a small decoration of thinly sliced steamed beetroot, carrot and celery
• steam & smoke: Steamed cheese dumplings with smoked tomato jam and smoked sour cream/butter
• smoke: cedar smoked wild mushroom and seitan parcels (for 2 people), smoked potatoes, arriving under 3 glass jars filled with smoke, 12 plates with tea-steamed spinach 'tower' and a think green line/brush stroke of garden cress & goat cheese sauce

Sounds (pre-recorded and abstracted, from speakers under or next to individual chairs, perhaps small, barely audible, invisible live interventions)

• sounds of transformation
  • smoking
  • steaming
  • cooking/frying
• live improvisation (Stevie)
• SW - I thought this was going to be the most concrete sound-piece with soundscapes based on the sound of transformation (cooking - smoke & vapour), Nik has a live mix set up with inputs including SW's stereo soundscape and an acoustic SW input. SW requests that the patch Nik uses to treat the prerecorded SW soundscape also includes her acoustic input so that she can use Nik's patch to merge acoustic and prerecorded sounds - for example a pre-recorded sound of streaming with a live sound a whispering: input will be a wireless mic.

Place: under low roof, 'screening room

Posture: sitting on chairs in groups of 4 people

Actions: Sharing, listening, tasting, gesturing

Props needed:

• 12 chairs
• 3 islands of 2 tree & leaf tables (6 tables in total)
• 4 surround sound speakers & cabling

• containers (spoons) for sorbet
• 3 glass vases, 3 small shovels and 12 small white plates for the garden
• 12 Topoware plates, cutlery for the mushroom dish, 3 wooden breadboards and 3 smoking bells for potatoes and mushroom parcels
• 2 sets of 12 wine glasses
• 12 serviettes
• 12 water glasses
• …

Kitchen table: light, social, colourful

Drink (all depending on the food served)

• japanese green tea (as .jp green teas are first steamed before being rolled, making them more green) - matcha, sencha or sencha with yuzu
• steamed coffee (from mokka coffee cookers or find steamed coffee beans
• Whiskey and cigars cocktail, or smoky Manhattan (a few smoked drinks recipes)

Food

• Smoked cheese platter (mozarella, feta, ash goat cheese, 2 smoked cow cheeses from Cremerie de Linkebeek)

• Steamed chestnut puree with Laphroaig
• Smoked garlic and Lagavullin tiramisu
• Pears steamed in a sweet red wine reduction and orange peel

Petit fours

• Smoked chocolates
• Caramels with smoked salt

Sound (pre-recorded, played and spoken live)

• sound of the kitchen
  • pots & pans
  • mechanical noises (cutting, slicing, shredding…)
  • cook's stories (smoking, steaming, ingredients)
  • describing the sounds of steaming & smoking
  • at the end, from 'formal stories' become chatter with participants
  • SW soundscape on 4 channels & 4 portable speakers - stage set C: portable speakers & players moved from trays onto the main eating table.
  • Nik surround speakers with ambiant sounds using Foam's in house stereo surround mini speaker system

Place: kitchen table, on our prep and plating table, that is covered with notes, instructions, drawings and stains

Posture: standing around the table

Actions: Observing, reading, tasting, listening (to the inner and outer environment), at the end beginning to chat

Props needed:

• big prep table covered in a writing material (paper of some kind), posca markers
• several small speakers on the prep table (balls from trays), perhaps a few speakers around the room (disembodied sounds)
• desserts in spoons and small containers
• 12 cups for tea/coffee
• 12 glasses for water
• 12 cocktail glasses
• …