Moments Before Clarity (Crystalline)

It’s taken me several weeks to complete this new track. For the first time when I was composing, I was guided by an image: a story that arose through the sounds I heard. It was an interesting process for me. This is the story I told myself as I was editing,

A beautiful woman, wearing a tattered silk kimono, walks out of town into a vast and lonely expanse of arid land. The ground is cracked and without grass or trees. The horizon is far away. Slowly, shards of ice begin to fall from the sky and break on the parched land.

As the woman continues walking an old tree appears in the distance and begins to blossom. A gentle wind shakes the blossoms to the ground where they melt the sharp crystals and turn to green grass. By the time the woman reaches the old tree the landscape has become plush and verdant. She sits beneath the old tree and begins to meditate. Moments before clarity she thinks…(you fill in the blank).

Here is the new link to the audio file. You can listen to Moments Before Clarity (Crystalline).

What’s Not To Love About An Artist Named Charlemagne Palestine?

Studying sound art, electroacoustic music and experimental music has opened up a new world for me. Suddenly I am discovering the work of artists who have been creating work for decades. Recently I discovered Charlemagne Palestine who studied at NYU with Morton Subotnik. What is interesting about Palestine is how he seemed to have formally studied music only to break the laws of music to create compelling and sometimes dissonant sound structures. I also like the way he employs a bit of playfullness into his performance by surrounding himself with stuffed animals. Then of course there was the way in which he smoked clove cigarettes and drank cognac while performing–so deliciously decadent.

Here is a video of Palestine performing a portion of a three-hour organ drone at the Cathedrale St Pierre

Iannis Xenakis’ Oresteia at the Guggenheim

Among the remarkable composers of the 20th century, Iannis Xenakis reimagined Aeschylus’ epic tragedy Oresteia through the lens of Japanese Noh theater. Excerpts will be performed at Works in Process at the Guggenheim Museum. George Steel will discuss the production with director/choreographer Luca Veggetti, Francoise Xenakis, and collaborator Sharon Kanach.

Guggenheim Museum: Works and Process presents Oresteia by Iannis Xenakis: excerpts and discussion with George Steel, Luca Veggetti, Sharon Kanach, and Francoise Xenakis Monday, September 8, 7:30pm 1071 5^th Avenue at 89^th Street

http://www.guggenheim.org/education/worksandprocess/index.html