SUSPENDED MOMENT

Joan Mitchell, New Orleans, LA | September 2019

https://soundcloud.com/user-12771275/suspendedmoment-joanmitchell/s-peemJTHwALp

Suspended Moment is an ongoing project conceived of by artist and 3rd generation Hiroshima survivor Yukiyo Kawano. I have been honored to create sound for dance pieces associated with installations of her work. Here we have a sound recording from a live performance at Joan Mitchell Residency where Yuki was in residence (dancer Meshi Chavez and I were invited as short term guests). This is the 2nd section of a 3-piece score totaling about 40 minutes. The Butoh dance piece is centered around a sculptural installation, built by Kawano- a life-sized replica of the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima.

Elder portal: Overture

https://soundcloud.com/user-12771275/the-elder-portal-overture/s-JKKVJcFCAKE

The Elder Portal seeks to build relationships between the living and their deceased ancestors through calling songs that sit in the voice of the living person, but attract the ears of the dead. Here, I call my Grandpa Pete. My grandfather would come home every day from his job as a maintenance man at the Smith Corona factory. He loved sitting in quiet on the back stoop, letting the day shake off. sitting with a cigarette listening to the sounds of the neighborhood- children playing, the ballfield a block over. Most people remembered him warmly as “quiet,” but my Dad felt distant I think. The typewriter and Morse Code here in this piece are both saying “I love you though I’m not always there,” something I think my Dad always wanted to hear from his Dad.