The Workbench by Brian Harnetty

“Dignified, meticulous, profoundly moving sound art. Four stars.” — MOJO

“I am so moved by this music and these visuals… A masterclass.” — Foxy Digitalis Magazine

"Harnetty creates space for a piece that is at once melancholy, uplifting, winsome, and profound... Carve out some time to let this one work its wonders on you and you may find it about you and yours as well—an ode to all we share and can, together, repair." — Aquarium Drunkard

“It’s easily [Harnetty’s] most intimate composition, drawing back the veil in ways that can be gutting.” — Matter News

"Paul spent his life fixing typewriters and extending the lives of other objects. In similar fashion, Brian now extends his father’s memory, enhancing it with a heartfelt tribute that will introduce him – via the objects he loved – to people who never had the chance to know him. The physical workbench has now become aural; we suspect his father would be proud." — A Closer Listen

“It’s a single movement to honor a relationship while reflecting on the brevity of time and the artifacts that persist amid mortality… It’s a short statement from Harnetty but one that lasts.” — Dusted Magazine

“Bittersweet… Elegiac… Harnetty doesn’t build the music around the cadences of his father’s voice, nor does he cut the phone messages into verse format. Rather, the everyday updates serve as simple interjections that drive the piece.” — Red Hook Star Review

The Workbench is Harnetty’s most personal work to date: a sonic portrait of his father, Paul. The piece is a reflection on time, filial connections, life and death, and the power of inherited objects.

After his father’s death, Harnetty inherited his tools, radios, speakers, a typewriter, and a workbench. Harnetty began to think of the objects as conduits between past and present, living and dead. He began to ask: are there sonic traces of a person embedded in these collected, repaired, and loved objects? And do the objects have their own agency, which we can activate and listen to?

The Workbench is both portrait and memorial. It directly uses the themes and methodologies that Harnetty’s work is concerned with: lives of everyday people, contemplative listening, found sounds, and interdisciplinary storytelling. Perhaps most importantly, it pays careful attention to seemingly trivial details of everyday life. It shows how attentive listening might reveal something to us right now: a way to think deeply about each other, and work toward healing the people and places where we live.

Interdisciplinary sound artist and composer. Recordings on Winesap, Karl, Dust-to-Digital, Atavistic, and Scioto Records.

brianharnetty.com
Facebook
bsky.app
Instagram
linktr.ee