Jitr จิตร: extended gong ensemble - elekhlekha(kengchakaj & Nitcha Tothong.)
Reviewed by Leah Davis

Spatial audio is something special. We’re used to the quality of sound changing as we move — music gets louder as we walk toward a speaker. But spatial compositions use several audio channels at once to create sound environments that vary along multiple axes. Compositions are designed to work in concert, but standing near one speaker reveals melodies or beats you might not hear from five feet away. This is part of what I learned from MIT Spacial Sound Lab director Ian Condry, in between runs of the Futures of Listening Mixtape. He and the lab hosted a quadrophonic audio theater pop-up in one of the museum’s lower-level classrooms. Speakers (and one subwoofer) had been positioned at each corner of a dark room where people were invited to chat with creators about their work. Multi-channel audio had been composed for this arrangement, which meant everyone in the room had a different listening experience depending on where they were standing and how they moved through the space. Nitcha Tothong and Kengchakaj Kengkarnka of elekhlekha took a moment to remind us that listener interaction plays a huge role in spatial audio’s final product as they introduced their gong ensemble piece, Jitr จิตร: extended gong ensemble. Gongs only have one note, so “we have to play together” to create meaning. Jitr Tong is stuffed to the brim with meaning: it’s educational. It’s a love letter to Southeast Asia. It’s a reflection on the suppression of culture, a dig at Western military–industrial complexes, an invitation to be playful, a request to meditate, and so on. elekhlekha is a “theory first” kind of duo. But when the piece starts, all of that falls away. Intent is shed as experience arises, ushering in an ease that was previously absent. People began to take up space, following elekhlekha’s lead by creating sound with found objects. One thing we had been asked to consider before the piece started was how we might make space for everyone’s experience. I noticed that this made a few of us — mostly white women — hold back from participating. But the absence of participation is louder than intentional collaboration, so I looked for where I might fit and found that we all have a role to play when it comes to building something beautiful.