Envelop: January, 2019

from the Envelop home page

This morning was the first time I became aware, through a Facebook link, of Envelop. This is an organization that describes itself on its home page as “a nonprofit that amplifies the power of music through immersive listening experiences.” Those experiences are provided by a system of 32 loudspeakers configured to surround (immerse) the audience through the control of free open source spatial audio tools. Since around the middle of last year, the organization has been hosting a variety of events at which both hardware and software are deployed for both spatial music performances and album listening events.

The equipment is sufficiently portable that Envelop can make it available for festivals and site-specific events. They also enable a pop-up event venue in Salt Lake City. However, here in San Francisco, they have a permanent venue, Envelop SF, within The Midway, the peninsula that juts out into San Francisco Bay around Pier 80. This month that venue will be hosting six listening events, covering a broad diversity of album sources. Specific information about these events is sparse; but it seems useful to make note of them, since they are likely to appeal to a variety of tastes. Dates and times (some of which involve two sessions) are as follows:

1. Thursday, January 10, 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.: This will present the original quadraphonic mix of the Pink Floyd album The Dark Side of the Moon, remixing the original four channels across the 32 speakers in a way that respects the original masterpiece.
2. Friday, January 11, 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.: Surrounded is the album by Tipper mixed for 5.1 surround sound, which, again will be remixed for Envelop’s 32 channels in a way that will respect the original mix.
3. Monday, January 21, 8 p.m.: This is likely to be a more inventive evening. Recordings of Nina Simone were not produced with “spatial” listening in mind. The hosts for this event will be taking a selection of tracks from her catalog and creating their own approaches to endowing her performances with new ways of listening to her.
4. Wednesday, January 23, 8 p.m.: Jamil Lea, Production Manager for Envelop SF, will take a similar approach to his own selection of tracks recorded by Sade Adu.
5. Thursday, January 24, 8 p.m.: This will be another album-based concert. The album will be A Love Supreme, a suite of four movements played without interruption by the “classic” John Coltrane quartet, led by Coltrane on tenor saxophone with McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass, and Elvin Jones on drums. The announcement suggests that other Coltrane tracks will also be subjected to the remixing process.
6. Thursday, January 31, 8 p.m.: Christopher Willits has prepared a “spherical” playback of Ryuichi Sakamoto’s async album.

Envelop SF is located at 900 Marin Street. Conveniently, the Muni T line, which runs down 3rd Street, has a stop at Marin Street. However, the entrance to Envelop SF is around the corner from Marin Street, through the building’s patio, which faces Michigan Street. Admission for all of these events is $25. The above hyperlinks lead to the respective Eventbrite pages for online purchase. (When there are two performances, there is a single Eventbrite page from which the desired time may be selected.)