Stonehenge Calling

Stonehenge, aligned as it is to the solstices, is known to have been a place of pagan worship…and raves, according recent articles in  UK-based The Sun and Telegraph newspapers.

Even though the suggestion that the archetypal grand circle of stones was constructed as much for its acoustic properties as for any kind of visual spectacle should come as no surprise, this news comes as a welcome, um, rave-elation. Why is it that we as a modern society get so caught up in the visual spectacle of certain historical artifacts to the neglect of acoustic aspects? 

Perhaps what was performed in this monolithic, ancient and sacred space was a music/dance celebration of fertility and the return of crops…so with this idea in mind, the article’s mention of  ‘trance music’ immediately brings to mind the Vienna-based Vegetable Orchestra and their trance-inducing minimalist feasts of sound! 

Personally I would hazard a guess, however, that the scene was a little more crazed, like what I bore witness to recently in Montreal.

Those crazy Brits! The lengths that some people might go to for fine acoustics! 

A little closer to home - and for some rather obscure yet related Canadian content – you thought those moose antlers were just for show?!?

     Photo courtesy of the Telegraph