My journey towards wholeness through sound.
2012 Stories is about Mother Earth, the rich voices of the abundant life she supports and my journey of healing, hearing and learning to sing again. This music shares with you a personal journey to come alive during an unprecedented time of awakening on our planet earth. As we head towards a radically changing future, forecast by many prophecies from around the world, the journey is one of awakening from a mesmerized sleep of “seeing is believing” to a life of awareness built upon “sensing” and “feeling” is knowing. Truth resonates from deep places within and confirmation comes from some of the most unlikely places without. The voice of Mother Earth is the messenger of this knowing and each individual, connected to collective consciousness, is the canvas. Sound moves.
Finding this music and learning how to express it has been a lesson in surrender…recognizing that I am not in control and that my task is to allow sound to come through. This music found me…not the other way around. A peace and calm breaks from the turmoil of life’s lessons when one’s reason for being suddenly becomes unmistakably clear. Resistance peels away and a river flows as natures wisdom follows the path of least resistance. Understanding that was once lost, but not forgotten, returns, and suddenly life makes sense in all its prosperity and bounty. The voice of Mother Earth is the supreme teacher in the “school of earth,” and so this music offers journeys…presented here as the widest possible landscape with potential paths for each individual’s choosing. Listening becomes your creation as it connects, challenges, soothes, reminds, reminisces, forecasts and wanders the hallways of our Mother’s voice setting a stage where perhaps we can all bump into “another yourself” along the way.
2012 Stories CD No. 1
Composed at the Wurlitzer Foundation, Taos, NM in 2007, 58'
In lake’ch (Mayan for “i am another yourself”) is a 13 movement work about the environment...it is about human evolution from a base existence of materialism toward a higher horizon of spiritualism nurtured by resonant light. It is about peace and optimism... It asks each of us to look inward...to evaluate our relationships with the earth...ourselves...each other...while gazing out to a far beyond...a creation story: not the ones gone by, but rather the one of our bright and potent future...an unfolding of an intelligence far beyond our known...an ancient cosmology. It is music about the coming-of-age of our planet and a growing consciousness that resonates inward to our own individual alignment with enlightenment and outwards toward a universe where all connects...bathed in higher energy...nourished by harmonic convergence. It is a personal oscillation through omniscient reverberation...
The track titles are from the poetry of Nathan Bartel and a manuscript called The Pangaea, where my inspiration first began. Nine poems titled “The Interior” (or perhaps one in 9 segments), knitted by Mayan numerology, provoked my imagination to roam and race: hearing words, and seeing sounds. These sounds, analogous to the texts, traverse a distance from recognized and obvious to eclipsed: engaged for their beauty or emotional content, or for their cellular sonic imprint...their spatial, spiritual resonance. Transformation of sounds encourages an excursion into the hinterlands of each individual imagination that chooses to travel here. There is no attempt to fuse a narrative, but rather to create a space where each listener can trek at will and pursue the pathways of their own instinct perhaps even bumping into another yourself along the way.
Special thanks to Nathan Bartel for beautiful, immense poetry; to Francis Dhomont, Bernard Parmegiani and Michele Chion for their profound and poetic music (given homage here), to Gary Dibenedetto for source material from his sound sculpture and to Marjorie Sa’adda for helping breath life into the first and last movements. Very special thanks to Michael Knight and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation without whose generosity and vision this work would never have been born!
for JM, CY & ZL
2012 Stories CD No. 2
Composed in 2008, 54'
Commissioned by IMEB, Bourges, France
Kuxan suum, Mayan for “Road to the sky,” is about healing and reconciliation, and follows In lake’ch as the second in a series of CDs focusing on spirituality and transformation. Each of the 11 movements has a different lens through which it looks at the healing imperative at a time and place where our thoughts, and their resulting actions, have brought us to the brink of our own extinction. And yet, there are hopeful signs of transforming the limitations of our logic, which somehow seeks to reassure even as it destroys us. Ours is the plight of spirituality. The solution: a steerage that takes us a few degrees off course into new territory not subject to the laws that govern us from the past: laws and limitations that we have self-created. Physics, mathematics, psychology, neurology, music, metaphysics (to name just a few disciplines), all point towards a similar notion: that our existence is a creation of our own minds, and that minds cast adrift without spiritual moorage run aground on the devices of their own creation.
I cannot help but think it is time for us to forget our history: the past that binds us to repeating the same mistakes in the mirage of a dry desert. Perhaps a new grammar of harmony can free us to forget the Verduns of our past and avert their re-enactments. The invisible island...that is the circular pattern of life and energy…of the family of light...knows without being taught, Tikkun olam, or “repairing the earth.” The Cheyenne and Arapaho have done this at the Sand Creek and Washita Massacre sites. Their healing runs restoring not only the health of the land, but cultivating cultural and social healing: an invitation to examine how we interact with others in past and present. Perhaps in this music, a Nij Dhar of sorts...a vibration between our universal creator energy and our seeker, we may find a golden alphabet…a life language of love and compassion...of care and consideration...of peace and tranquility and of transcendent energy and harmony in the unity of all things.
Looking back upon this time our children’s children will know that we lived in a time when miracles fell from the sky like drops of healing rain: lessons that our follies are easily fixed, our path easily corrected. Many teachers among us already show the way to an ancestral blue, a blue that once knew the oneness of our universe and yearns to be returned. The road to awe leads not to the sky...nor a heaven out there, but to our own inner cosmos, where everything, including ourselves is made, and where our spirit knows the tools of it’s own restoration. Now is the time to quiet our ways, look inward and create healing and love, and watch the results as the earth and its inhabitants shift and blossom before our very eyes.
Special Thanks to:
The Cheyenne Singers for Jesus he’ama tsehoo’éstse (from Tsese-Ma’heone-Nemeototse: Cheyenne Spiritual Songs), Gretchen Krivoshia for the didjeridu recordings, JoDee Davis for the trombone samples and Gao Renyang for the dizi sounds and to everyone at IMEB in Bourges, France, who were most gracious with their assistance and use of their studios.
Kuxan suum was commissioned by, and realized in the studios of the Institute International de Musique Electroacoustique de Bourges, with the exception of movement 2, Verdun which was commissioned by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO.
For JD, JY and JPPO whose brotherhood has inspired me for many years.
2012 Stories CD No. 3
Commissioned and composed at CMAS, Morelia, Mexico
Zuvuya, Mayan which literally means “circuit by which all things return to themselves,” is the third CD in a series on spirituality and human transformation. These tracks explore the connectedness of all things and the circular pattern around which life oscillates. The structure and expression here is inspired by my young yoga practice and the exploration of breath and energy internally and externally. Prana…a physical portal into the Dimension dances of our smallest particles from Electron clouds to quantum foam…sparks more dancing in purple dream rain-a spiritual engaging of body, mind and spirit into Qi where physical matter transforms into energy. As humans come closer to the brink of disaster while at the same time begin to evolve beyond the thought patterns that create this disaster, Probability gaps give way to possibility spans and empty windowless frames transform to Frameless windows revealing vistas unbound by physical limitations. Secret chronicles of time hint towards infinity where doorways in space (and time) spiral around each other. All points from Oak knowledge—wisdom lost but not forgotten—to Encomium’s halo of light and thought energy, lead to and from, in and out of, and circle around a center of Yaxkin: a source-less source and place of renewal…a beginning and an ending…a timeless space of life and death…renewal and rest…age and youth…the here and now and the circle is complete.
Zuvuya was commissioned by the Centro de Musica Mexicana e Arte Sonora, and composed there in the spring of 2009. Special thanks to Rodrigo Sigal and the staff at CMMAS; to Jen and Chris at Boulevard Yoga and Healing Arts in Kansas City, for their amazing prayer bowl; to April Watson for the “elevator walk” in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art; to Joaquin for having so much fun in the tub; to Bob for snoring so perfectly and Charliegh for playing tug with the tape running; to Kim and Michele for helping me stay connected during my time away from home; to Javier Ballestros for the beautiful ocarina used in track 9, and all the wonderful street musicians in Morelia and Mexico City.
Zuvuya is dedicated to my mother Ruth and father Carl, and my brother Jon and Sister Evelyn who have been with me in this circle of life from the get go, and to their spouses Carolyn and Tracy and Children Solomon, David, Spencer and Jackie who have expanded the circle beyond measure.
2012 Stories CD No. 4
Composed during a residency generously supported by the Wurlitzer Foundation, Taos, NM, 2009, 57
Sian ka’an (Mayan for “Place where the sky is born”) is the fourth CD in a series called 2012 Stories. The Sian ka’an Bioreserve in Mexico is a special place of great beauty where glassy waters and sky are inseparable, except for thin slivers of land. A feedback loop of moisture, circulating around these narrow slivers, reflects the transient nature of our life on this planet. The finiteness of physicality becomes palpable, as the scale of what is beneath and above reflects an unlimited field of infinite potential. A lightless chasm where motion and energy exist in a broiling turbulence, sets a stage for star throwers, both ancient and modern, who hurl matter into a dark void, opening up other dimensions…filling the sky with the stuff of imagination. Lapping light manifests, inseparable water and sky, a pink wash. Energy ripples from water to sky and back as tidal hurl continues launching and feeds life in the chasm, fomenting density peaks. As energy births matter and matter looses spirit, a sun rises over a proliferation of diverse life. Creation sings a sun’s soliloquy as the heat and energy from this transmitter, our mediator to a galactic core, feeds and tunes our existence. Growth expressed in texture, cutting clouds for the sky, as moisture rises and falls in an oscillation of horizon’s dance: energy teetering on a brink of tipping…a delicate balance that humans seem to have lost but not forgotten. A transformed canopy hovers above life to teach…to remember…to learn and to remind of corroboration in the great circle of life and energy, as we find our role, our contribution, and re-learn life in sustainable balance, and the sky of our future is born unto our present of unlimited potentiality.
Special thanks to The Helen Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos New Mexico for the space and time to create Sian ka’an and to Marion Henderson and Jim Lengerich for their healing and teaching. Thanks to Santino Bermudez for the shop sounds at the Rickard Studio in Toas, and to Laurent Guerin for his May Morning Dew on the bagpipes; to Pat Conway for the gamelan sounds, and to the canaries of Morelia, Mexico.
2012 Stories CD No. 5
Composed in 2011 at the American Academy of Rome, while on the Elliot Carter Rome Prize Fellowship, 60'
Cannac “There is no form without spirit” explores energies behind the easily observable 3rd Dimension. Humans have many ways of describing these energies: the 7 directions (Native American)…the Seven Hermetic Principles…the 7 chakras (Vedic)…7 spiritual laws of success (Deepak Chopra)…all ephemeral labels for diverse experiences with unseen forces interacting with the forms that we perceive our world and ourselves to be. These energy or “spirit” dimensions connect us to a matrix of energy and the many layers of transient life.
Earth’s umbilical: Yoda Tree grounds us in the animated living library of Mother Earth: a trailhead to a Universe of pure potential and abundance as a tree drinks from both ground and sky. In a domain of infinite energy, giving and receiving is a volley on the field of Imagination games without winners or losers. “As the cow jumped over the moon,” coyote coaxes out the inner child while the cat plays a fiddle and the dish runs away with a spoon. Messenger particles have a peculiar gravity as electrons provide direct access for spirit into the physical world. Reverberations of karmic energy blossoms return in like kind, as ripples in water reach the banks and spiral back towards their kinetic origin. The Sun exhibits symbiotic balance of form and energy: a silent witness of mass into light… a symbol of the unlimited expanse of heart-space in each of us. Nature’s intelligence flows with effortless ease, and follows the path of least resistance: ancient wisdom, remembered, illuminates possibilities opening before us. “Primary intelligence” is the instruction manual for the mechanics of fulfillment inherent in every intention and desire! Speaking becomes an Infinite horizon of organizing power and the peace of listening floats on observing without judgment in both dreamtime and wake-time. A yin-yang oscillation of creation multiplies fractally in and out, up and down, over and through and our walk through life is balanced. 10,000 fireflies illuminate the switchbacks on the trail to our special purpose and hearts desire. Personal truth and individual talent proliferates in life-giving harmony with form and spirit inseparable.
Thanks to Karen and Joaquine Gingerich, Dusty and Wendy Stewert, Jack, John, JD, Linda Drumheller and Gayle Barklie, Fausto Sebastiani, Wilard and Cecilia, Lisa Schamberg and the gang at Steve’s cabin, Ross Barrable, Valerie Solheim, Jack and Judy Stucky, Kim Wolhuter, Henry McFerron, Case Brown and Aparna Keshaviah, Andrea Clearfield, Toby Evans,The American Academy in Rome, and all the folks at Grrr Jamming Squeak in Rotterdam where the live components of Cannac were recorded. Grrr is a public artwork by Paola Pivi commissioned by Sculpture International Rotterdam, with recordings of animals provided by The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York.
2012 Stories CD No. 6:
Composed at the American Academy in Rome
Paul Rudy Composer/Performer with Heidi Svoboda, Planetary Gongs
Kinan (Mayan for “Solar wind”) moves through the eight elements of the I Ching. Within the I Ching’s philosophy it is believed that the elements apparent in the natural world are alive within the constructs of the human design. Kinan tunes in to the transformational energy of each element and gives them life through sound. The Thunderous silence of creation breaks us open, shaking us into a world of sound and movement: ideas become vibration. Wind blows in new energy of change, clearing away old patterns that no longer serve us, illuminating shadow within the soul. Fire burns and dissolves all obstacles in its way, in an alchemical change starting in the heart, and we are led up the path to the passionate fruit of our own essence. Mother Earth grounds us as we root down to deepen our passion and explore our purified essence. Inside the Earth’s infinite womb we find the nourishment to grow strong and bright. Lake brings joy as new vistas of our soul journey are reflected back to us through its healing mirrors. And finally, we reached Heaven, receive the Pleiadian keys to the cosmos, whose doorways show us the oneness with all people, places, and things. Water teaches us to flow with ease in life’s beautiful synchronicities. We learn to follow the path of least resistance in the dance of eternal counterpoint: playing, swirling, spinning, and splashing with grace. And finally, Mountain leads us home within our bodies, minds and spirit teaching us to stand strong in who we are and honor the inner wisdom of our own living library. Throughout life, we may find ourselves at any point in the endless cycle of ascension, playing in the lessons of each element.