Sunshine_Surprises
MagicEarthMotherTongue
Fall is typically a time to go inward. Dig deep into the dark soils enriched by summers fallen fruit. Summer skin fades. The flesh forgets the feeling of warm breezes so soon. How the air seemed to envelope us in an easy embrace. Golden brown limbs, dusty trails, hot blacktop and eventually smoke. Too much smoke so we left the mountains. But this fall, this time feels amplified. Not a time to reflect. In other words, I’m so busy!
A new performance at the Western Gallery in Bellingham!
A new outdoor Sound Art commission
A symposium MagicEarthMotherTongue: Language for a New Ecology
I will try to use this platform to record all the activities relating to these 3 assignments. The first is the most pressing in that it arrives on October 20th, 2021. My plan is to create a collective musical performance. Here’s the blurb put out by the museum, which I actually wrote myself.
October 20th 5PM
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
I will… lead participants through a collective performance experience. We will explore our fear, anxiety, curiosity through a sonic somatic public ritual resulting in a collective aural catharsis. Music may be a natural byproduct of the event.” Okay.
To that end I have been studying Pauline Oliveros’s Sonic Meditations and Brian Eno’s Sing-a-Longs. Content is forming in my mind. Equipment may include the following:
Drums
Guitar
Pedal Board
3 Bronze pieces hooked up to 3 Touch Boards
4 Microphones on stands
2 Kustom Speakers
Yamaha Mixer
I plan to read some of the text from Enos and Oliveros or transcribe it into my own words. But I especially like what Oliveros says about healing: “Healing can occur… when [1]individuals fell a common bond with others through a shared experience [2]when on’s inner experience is made manifest and accepted by others [3]when one is aware of and in tune with one’s surroundings [4]when one’s memories or values are integrated with the present and understood by others.”
Part of me is thinking of having something prerecorded. Part of me is thinking I should have a drummer. Part of me is thinking NO I am doing this one solo. This is a first iteration and I need a clean slate to really feel it out, what works, what doesn’t. A lot still to figure out!
Pedal board in progress
While I was preparing for the Western Sound commission I needed to practice up my welding skills so I made myself a new pedal board… and got a new pedal!
My new Rainbow Machine… its inter-stellar. Just learning how to use. This is the team!
Feel good about the job so next I started working on the speaker housing for the Western Commission. Still have much to do but so far it’s working out.
The speakers will sit horizontally so they are longer than they are tall and I plan to paint them white!
