ARTicles

University by the Sound

Bowling balls, balloons, bottles. Wooden, rubber, paper or plastic. No matter the object, no matter the material, noise was banging and bopping and clanking and rattling throughout the Sunday afternoon at Found Sound, a class for the curious at this year's University by the Sea.

Aside from its unique, secluded venue: the basement of the historic Lafayette Building on Linden Avenue—oh, yes, we were that noisy—this class was the only one offered by Cal State Long Beach students. Joe Kaplan is to thank for bringing some of our university to 'the Sea'!

A music student and leader of the Composer's Guild, Kaplan knew exactly how to lead the class into various exercises on improvisations, where seemingly any bit of error, imperfection or imbalance of sound made perfect sense.

Abstract, chaotic sounds grew into fleshy harmonic waves. The loud and panicked echoed into low and sparse. Or, in a collective manner, one person would start with a beat, then the next would mimick that beat, and the next and next. Kaplan went on demanding more variations of the improvs, all of which he often identified by fancy words.

By the time I hit the light again, absorbed in the East Village Arts District's buzz of bands performing for something special called Schooled in Song, I imagined myself up on stage with the rest of them. It came so naturally in Found Sound, anyway. Eventually I settled down and let the pro's, or, in other words, my favorite Long Beach band the Crystal Antlers, take authority over the situation. The 'Sea' sparkled.