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Balancing Act
Balancing Act was composed for Electronic Music Foundation's sound exhibit Sound in the Frying Pan, an installation of compositions aboard the Lightship Frying Pan, Pier 66 Maritime, NY, NY. Written by Thorpe & collaborator Philip White, Balancing Act was simultaneously activated by the ship and activated the space it was in. The sway of the vessel acted as composer, with its tilt making musical choices via a sensor. The reflections of pitches off of the surfaces of the ship turned her into an instrument, as tunings were chosen for their ability to make metallic surfaces shimmer with sound. Further determining what a listern heard was his or her location, as perceptions of sound shifted with an individual's position. The composition changed organically with the ship's motion, allowing for continually new combinations of sound. The recording here is an outtake from the third day of it's instalation.

thenumber46: two choices
thenumber46: beehives as a child
thenumber46 is a flute and feedback duo with electrist Philip White. The two met at Mills College when Suzanne asked Philip for help carrying an unreasonably large amplifier down the stairs. They soon discovered a mutual love for feedback. Since then they have performed extensively throughout the US exploring feedback systems acoustically, electronically, visually and metaphorically. They are proud of their recent release, Bleach & Ammonia, which will soon be rereleased on cassette via Tape Drift Records.

Foiled Solo for flute featuring sounds that barely reach fruition, representing words that aren't completed, thoughts that are repressed, desires that are quelled and communications that are incomplete. Foiled features a small set of extended technique, some of which are processed and layered to create new sounds. The resulting recording is performed with hand-diffusion to a quad system, bringing into play questions of proximity.

Subway Series: Part 1 Subway Series: Part 1 is an unexpectedly revelatory cartographic composition made up of field recordings gathered on two mass transit systems, the New York City Subway and the San Francisco BART. Sound artist/composers Chuck Johnson and Suzanne Thorpe recorded simultaneous rides in their respective locations, which were then processed in a tuned filtering system. A bank of 96 resonant filters, built within Max/MSP and tuned to a microtonal scale derived from the harmonic series, unveiled a geopolitical history embedded in the sounds emitted by each transportation system. When experienced through this harmonic lens, the New York City Subway's aging cars and tracks sound their city's reign in the age of the Robber Barron and into the 20th century, while the same tunings divine 21st century possibilities within new technologies in the field recordings of the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit System. When combined and juxtapose, the individual recordings converge to sound the evolution of technologies, concurrent realities, and the existence of simultaneously collaborative environments.

The Wounded Knees: All Rise->Sonic Dogfight The Wounded Knees are Jimi Shields (Rollerskate Skinny, Lotus Crown, Martina Topley-Bird), Suzanne Thorpe (Mercury Rev, Forest for the Trees, thenumber46), and Phil Williams (Hopewell, Evil Twins). The pirate-punk trio were united by dissatisfaction as their latch-key-child government embezzled its' own conscience and crossed-their-hearts-hoped-to-die lied about everything..... confusion turned to sound, and, like lightning cracking an old oak tree, the anthems of All Rise were born. The Wounded Knees are sometimes joined live onsatge by J Mascis. J plays atomic guitar on the track, "Dirty Exploding Sonic Dogfight",(recorded live@Tonic NYC), simply known as "Dirty", on the All Rise EP.

Hocket An improvised flute and percussion duo with percussionist Marshall Trammell.