Performance for plural larynx: A song for True
by Pedro Alves Sousa

Jerry True was a - virtually unknown - saxophonist in orchestras and big bands in Hastings, Nevada. Towards the end of his life he had throat cancer which prevented him from continuing to play the saxophone. With determination, he got a small portable air compressor and attached the hose to his mouth so that he could have the sound pressure to continue playing his instrument.

This story created the basis for Performance for plural larynx: A song for True by musician Pedro Sousa, presented for the first time in New York as part of the Ernesto de Sousa Fellowship, which he won in 2013. Pedro Alves Sousa developed this performance during his residency at Phil Niblock's Experimental Intermedia.

Throughout history, musical instruments have been mostly considered inert, as they lack human intervention. In a historical period when wind harps were in vogue, and at the advent of the golden age of mechanical music, the saxophone, created in the first half of the 19th century, was an exponent of humanistic and technological creation. While advances in automation through computers, MIDI protocols, and various machines have allowed for varying degrees of ambiguity in the concept of what a musician or instrumentalist consists of, the saxophone transcends this idea: more than manipulation, it also requires physical effort, with very clear restrictions. 

In this piece, Pedro Alves Sousa seeks to take the instrument to the limit of its capabilities, bypassing the human factor: our lungs have limits both in air volume capacity - how long can a saxophone play a single note without stopping - and in how many decibels we are able to produce. By exploding these confinements, the instrument takes on an industrial dimension, but sound perception becomes subjective as it vibrates and processes more through the body than through the use of the ears.

In honour of Jerry True's memory, the performance was presented to the public for the first time in New York in 2014, shortly after his death.

Biography

Born in 1986 in Lisbon, Pedro Alves Sousa took his degree in Sculpture at the Lisbon School of Fine Arts between 2005 and 2009. Nowadays, he presents his work mainly as a saxophonist, branching out into other areas such as composition and production, photography, installations, and performance.  He founded or co-founded bands such as: Má Estrela, EITR, Casa Futuro, Peter Gabriel Duo, and Pão. He also participates in several bands such as Caveira, Volúpias das Cinzas, and Serpente. He has collaborated with artists such as Evan Parker, RP Boo, Phil Niblock, Sei Miguel, Rafael Toral, Mão Morta, Alexander Von Schlippenbach, Thurston Moore, Johan Berthling, Peter Evans, Marching Church, and Black Bombaim. He won the Ernesto de Sousa Fellowship in 2013, curated by Phil Niblock, and participated in the Experimental Intermedia Festival in New York, with the performance/installation: Performance for plural larynx: A song for True. In late 2022 he launched the record label Futuro Familiar.