Wall of Sound

In this music, haunting drones, shimmering and brittle, layer on top of each other, repeating and ebbing in an oddly calming fashion. Close your eyes, and the thick, humming electricity may evoke an alien landscape or a wayward beacon sent into space and lost. One of the last mental images these sounds are likely to summon is a man standing in the desert playing a metal fence with a cello bow and modified chopsticks, yet that’s exactly what you’re hearing in Glenn Weyant’s Anta Project recordings. At least, that’s the primary sound: Listen closely, and you might make out water jugs played with mesquite sticks, a barbed wire fence also given the bowed treatment, or the sound of helicopters circling in the sky. The recordings are not too dissimilar from the music of Weyant favorite Pauline Oliveros’ Deep Listening Band or Australian Alan Lamb’s wire music recordings, but the Anta (from the Sanskrit word meaning “end of known territory”) music was born in large part from socio-political, as well as aesthetic, concerns. It’s not just any fence that’s being turned into an instrument; it’s the giant three-mile long slab of metal that separates the United States and Mexico at Nogales, Arizona.

Immigration, legal or otherwise, has become such a hot button issue that the border between the United States and Mexico is charged with emotional resonance and political significance, which Weyant is aiming to deconstruct. He’s been recording the fence and it’s surroundings in part because he loves the sounds he gets, but also as a symbolic act. “I’m trying to transform a symbol,” he says. “I want to turn the wall into a bridge between the two countries.” In addition to the fence, he also records surrounding artifacts related to the border, such as the abandoned water jugs of immigrants who’ve walked miles across the Sonoran Desert, and a Catholic shrine dedicated to both travelers and police.

Though the utilization of a wall or fence as an instrument initially seems odd to people who hear about the project, Weyant says most people who’ve come into contact with him while he’s recording respond favorably: “It changes their perception of the wall just being a wall. All the world is an instrument. We’ve just ghettoized what we think is music.”

Some of those who’ve had their perceptions changed are local police and Border Patrol officers. “As soon as I hooked up the contact mic, a police cruiser came by,” Weyant recalls. After an explanation, the officer engaged him in dialogue, and Weyant “connected with the patrol officer. He saw what I was attempting to do and wished me luck. He said he hoped I put Nogales on the map.” The Border Patrol soon became familiar with Weyant and his project, and though they kept their distance, Weyant says,  “Whenever I recorded the fence, a Border Patrol would cruise by. I was under constant surveillance.”

Still, it’s one thing to grasp and appreciate a conceptual process and another to enjoy the results. “This is music you have to bring something to,” Weyant acknowledges. “It’s not a Top 40 piece.”

Despite that, the Anta Project’s presence on the Internet (www.sonicanta.com) has attracted listeners from around the world, with a particularly high number from Turkey, Germany and China. When speculating on the global popularity of a project focused on the U.S./Mexican border, Weyant muses on the prevalence of borders, walls and other artificial demarcations throughout the world. He’s hopeful that the Anta Project will call attention to the harms — physical, economical, psychological and otherwise — these divisions bring to all of us.

Weyant will present his Anta Project at the Art Gallery of Knoxville on July 6 as part of an exhibit curated by Jane Crowe (see preceding page) highlighting the relationship between Mexican immigrant workers and the cultures they move into, absent of the political rhetoric contemporary politicians can’t seem to get enough of spouting.

“Jane heard a piece I did for NPR and asked me to participate in a show she was doing,” he says. “I’m honored to be coming to Knoxville and be a part of this show. I see a real continuum between the [Growing Tennessee] project and mine; we want to put a human face on these issues. There’s a real humanity in this show.”

Glenn Weyant, The Anta Project
Reception Friday, July 6 / 7pm
The Art Gallery of Knoxville (317 N. Gay St.)