First Buzzard at the Body

A show of music and poetry about death, capitalism and ornithology.

Buzzard is a setlist of poetic texts subjected to transformative compositional processes, gutting them of meaning or stumbling through the banal into the sublime. The raw material of the poems is musicalised through cassette loops and digital looper, song, screen, instrumental use of microphones, and a dynamic, embodied delivery.

Stylistically, the show draws on 70’s sound poetry like Canada’s Four Horsemen, 60’s minimalist composition such as Steve Reich’s phase pieces, the immediacy of punk and stand-up comedy, and the sprawling romance of the natural soundscape.

The setlist is:
1. First Buzzard at the Body (loop piece)
2. Breath of a Fossil (song)
3. Cumulative facts 1–3 (with loop pedal)
4. Turkey Vulture (imagined music/visual music/silent animation)
5. Why would I think you a bird? (beat poem)
6. Secret Meat (danced poem)
7. Flocking (construction for 7 cassette players)
8. The Mighty Pile (song)
9. Microphone Drag (construction)

Performance History

• Festival of Live Art Auckland, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, February 2023
• Tahi Fest, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, September 2022
• Ōtautahi Tiny Performance Festival, Ōtautahi Chirstchurch, November 2021
• In-process showing at Play_Station, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, October 2022
• In-process showing toward Buzzard at Audio Foundation, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, August 2021

Thanks to Antonia Barnett-McIntosh, Eleanor Bishop, Sacha Copland, and Nick Zwart for your help while I was making Buzzard.

If you would like to talk about presenting First Buzzard at the Body or would like to see documentation video or know more about the show, please email Elliot.