These pieces augment my other performance and installation compositions and fill a different niche, often utilizing unaltered field recordings of natural sounds as melodic and rhythmic content.

This recent work is composed of all spoken word and some vocals. It is a protest song in support of our healthcare workers, many of whom are trying to save our lives by risking their own, in large part thanks to the inconceivable shortage of personal protective gear. Disposable masks are now being used for a week on the front lines of Covid 19 thanks to the failure of the US government.

This next piece was created our of a challenge to create another artwork inspired by one of the public art projects in Nashville. I bowed and rang Christopher Fennell’s Tool Fire and used these sounds with upright bass along with recordings of a fortuitous rain storm (the day I was playing bass) to create this programatic composition about the 2010 Nashville Flood. Made possible by a generous grant from Metro Nashville Arts Commission, The Bonnaroo Works Fund and the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee.

Metro Nashville’s page on Tool Fire and my composition is here at explorenashvilleart.com

Playing the sculpture!

 

This next recording was my response to a call from the Cornell Lab of Natural Sounds to use their bird recordings in a new composition. All sounds used are unaltered birdsong. I took their Yuba Pass bird recording workshop many years ago and it was an amazing experience. This was before I found my footing in bird conservation and started the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors.

The following graphic is a video of Nashville’s total eclipse with live vj and code effects. I composed a 40 page chamber music score commissioned by chatterbird ensemble and performed live with them as a visualist. Full performance as well as excerpts can be played below.