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6-Channel Sound Installation
60 minute continuous loop
audible gallery at experimental sound studio, chicago
november 12-december 19, 2010
Title borrowed from poem by Konstantine Balmont via Igor Stravinsky:
“His eyes were like stars, like flames which furrow space. His visage was like the sun when it shines at its zenith. The luminous colors of the heavens, purple, azure, and gold, dappled the gorgeous robe he wore to be reborn among us....”
On one level, this piece is a way to access a vast collection and explore the many facets, dichotomies, contradictions, and beauty contained within. The collection in itself is already a kind of large-scale composition, a finite world that points to the endless universe. My contribution is but one of an infinite number of pieces that can come from it.
I am not a jazz musician. I cannot lay claim to Sun Ra’s history, nor can I ever fully understand him or his music. But I can listen, intently, and enter a dialogue, bringing my own knowledge and thought and experience. How to enter a dialogue with Sun Ra? Start playing along, always listening with imagination and empathy....soon, your own voice emerges, runs along side, converses with, connects, while all along staying independent; they are “co-habitating” together.
In this conversation, there is also the gift economy: finding a way to bring the archives out of the defined world and into the daylight, to hold them, and pass them on. Their energy lies in the exchange, and is how they can stay alive and in motion.
Many thanks to the trustees for the Sun Ra/El Saturn Collection in the Creative Audio Archive at Experimental Sound Studio, who have generously given permission and access to the recordings.
Samples:
All from the Sun Ra/El Saturn collection housed at the Sun Ra/El Saturn Collection in the Creative Audio Archive at Experimental Sound Studio.
Musicians:
Brian Harnetty, Piano, Rhodes Electric Piano, Celesta
Jeremy Woodruff, Saxophone, Flute
Fred Lonberg-Holm, Cello
Jeff Kimmel, Bass Clarinet
Aaron Butler, Vibraphone
a few photos of the installation at audible here.
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