We first found out about Craig Colorusso's Sun Boxes the other day and became enchanted as hell. We wanted to write about them, but couldn't quite wrap our minds around how best to say "we don't know how they work, but they sound pretty," so we had Craig write up something himself. In June of 2009 Dave and I went out to Rhyolite Nevada with another guy named Richard Vosseller for a residency at The Goldwell Open Air Museum. We created an event called "Off The Grid," the objective of which was to make something using sustainable energy, and thus, Sun Boxes was born.Comprised of 20 solar-powered speakers, each emitting a different guitar note, each box has a different note loaded onto a sampler programmed to play continuously as long as there's enough power. There are no batteries involved so both participants and weather alter the piece. When clouds come sometimes SB gets quiet or turns off altogether.The volume of Sun Boxes is loud enough to engulf the participant, but there's enough space for the ambient sounds to leak into the mix. In Turners Falls an ambulance drove by with full sirens blaring and it was amazing to hear it get sucked into the mix. Menemsha Beach on Martha's Vineyard provided a backdrop of waves all day.Related stories:Turning Ears Into Solar Panels With MusicCraig Colorusso's Sun Boxes Turn it Up to Solar
In November 2008 my longtime friend, "Sexy" David Sanchez-Burr called me up and said, "Yo! Make something solar, we're going to the desert."
Advertisement