More Ukiyo-e & Other Prints

Because it was such a pleasant chore last time, I've decided to reprise my virtual print collecting expedition.  Finding a golden trove like Davidson Galleries out of Seattle, WA (last time I went searching for viscosity prints) was a stroke of luck that opened my eyes to the vastness of printmaking as a genre. 

Snow in the Countryside (1909) by Kamisaka Sekka

These selections draw from more traditional roots: some Japanese woodcuts and a talented contemporary artist thrown in for contrast.  This print by Sekka has all the movement of a fierce winter storm, and it's achieved with so few shapes; it's a testament to the striking simplicity and grace of the discipline.  I just enjoy looking at these when I click through, and I hope you do, too.

Of all the Japanese woodcuts, those by Kawase Hasui, in particular, had a way of capturing the essence of fleeting nature, a gust of wind or a snowflake melting on a windowpane, that could transport the viewer into the moment, into the light of the past.  The glowing grey-blue gradation in this Shōwa-era print deftly depicts the rising crystalline moonlight.  One can almost imagine the feel of the cold granite in the foreground, smoothed over centuries by nightly winds rushing through the valley below.

Kiyomizu Temple Kyoto (1933) by Kawase Hasui

Now I realize the last image here is not strictly a print, but the concept of remaking Ukiyo-e via digital photography -- and executing it so immpecably -- meant I had to include it.  The Canadian artist, Jeff Wall (1946 - ), is a master in a highly orchestrated, directorial style of photography.  According to Greg Fallis of Sunday Salon, hosted by Utata.org:

A great deal of Wall’s work seems to be an attempt to be such a “painter.” He even recreates the work of painters he believes met Baudelaire’s standard. For example, Wall is quite taken with the woodcuts of Hokusai, a Japanese artist who lived in the late 18th and early 19th century. In the following woodcut, Hokusai depicted a sort of Cartier-Bresson moment…a decisive moment.

Wall recreated the scene on a cranberry farm in rural Canada. In keeping with his obsessive, directorial style, he staged the photograph with great care. He selected the location to match Hokusai’s wind-bent trees. He had the subjects crouch and hold their hats similar to Hokusai’s. He recreated the hat that was blown away, and the scattering of papers. And yet he made it a completely contemporary image by setting it in a Canadian landscape and including the line of telephone poles.

Wall’s photo has all the drama and spontaneity of Hokusai’s woodcut. There is a wonderful sense of immediacy and tension. How was he able to create such an atmosphere and still reproduce Hokusai’s image so faithfully? By using the magic of digital imagery. Wall’s image is actually a composite of more than 100 separate photographs taken over two winters.

Fallis continues to explain how huge these prints are on display, taking up an entire wall of a gallery on a lightbox, but beyond this reincarnation of a great Hokusai print, its accuracy and emotion, I find the philosophy behind the work to be inspired and thoughtful.  Just as in the prints by Hasui and Sekka, the everyday is elevated to historical significance through the remarkable rendering of these scenes.

Chicken's Last Road Trip

I passed a truckload of chickens this morning before the Southern heat became a swelter this afternoon.  In their rolling cages, their dingy feathers fluttered and revealed a bright white underpinning that'd soon need scalding and plucking, no doubt; well, could've been a layer I suppose, so maybe there's some doubt.  Anyhow, somewhere I learned that chickens in transport are drugged beforehand to calm their nerves, possibly to keep their meat from spoilage by some version of "junglefowl" adrenaline -- maybe it's the same good old adrenaline regarldess of species, but I'm no zoologist.

Most of these unlucky cluckers stared out at the passing countryside bleery-eyed; who knows their focal length -- they're certainly not old enough for cataracts in the factory system.  One bird, however, seemed more alert than the rest, and this one clung to the edge of the truck, outside its cage in a little alcove, peering out at me as I passed.  The plump, billowing chicken was nearly immovable in the gusts of transit, but I'd seen his ilk, as have we all in Perdue's and Tyson's and Gold Kist's North Georgia, flattened and wasted on the ashphalt, dinner's 2-d version.

With Dr. Kevorkian's death this week, I began thinking, "What's stopping this one Houdini chicken from briskly flapping to a glorious, high-speed demise in place of a putrid, yet USDA certified, factory slaughter  down the road?"  All chickeny rationality aside, this specimen's last ride was akin to the Thelma and Louise of poultry production.  There he/she was in the open air, feathers ruffled, gazing out on unknown fields chock full of worms and hoppers and beetles of deep, nether-tasted flavors. For as flavorless as its meat or eggs likely were, that 'James Dean' chicken may as well have scooched its floppy body, albeit completely lacking in muscle tone due to lifelong confinement, and tumbled on up to the chicken-God on high, issuing forth a glorious plume of feathers with a final liberating squak -- all at highway velocity and not a tap of the airbrakes from the trucker. 

I reckon, here ends this comment'ry on the self-determination of captive 'Merican poultry.  Amen.    

500 Words on Pictures: Make It Then, Now Take It

Walking the dog this morning, a young guy passed in front of me, backlit by the morning sun on the thoroughfare.  He had on a short-billed cap with a hood pulled up half covering his head, and he wore a narrow goatee that he stroked pensively as he strode on.  Because I was listening to a podcast and had the capability in my pocket, the thought flashed through my mind to take his picture.

Most people don't want to have their picture taken by a stranger without permission, so I wondered if asking would do any good.  All this came to mind in the few perpendicular steps it took for him to exit my view and continue on with his morning.  I realized, as I turned the corner, that today we truly take pictures as opposed to one-hundred-plus years ago when pictures were veritably made.

Some cultures believe that the snapshots take a piece of the subject's soul; the photographic process itself, for these peoples, is a way to rob time or a slice of the spirit from a subject, even if permission is granted.  It's no wonder, beyond the pain and suffering of persecution, that photos of Native Americans in the late 1800's portrayed grim faces and steeled eyes, expressions of disdain, sometimes with a glint of fear, and almost always a sense of contempt.

 photo: library.buffalo.edu

To make a photograph used to be such an undertaking, as well.  The laborious process was methodical and painstaking, yielding a product that was a fine record of a moment but only after great effort.  Materials were rather costly, and venues for portraiture were relatively few (not the Glamour Shots in every mall or the portable digital ease of today).  But, the result of having your picture "made" was a lasting sliver of a life at that particular moment and something to be cherished.

Now we "take" pictures because it's just that simple and quick.  For the most part, there isn't any thought given to the process.  Of course, in terms of quality and realism, with the addition of color and high-defintion resolution, the photographs taken today can even venture into hyper-realism.  Even so, what are all those pixels worth if we can no longer see ourselves?

Would this kid be happier in hi-def?

photo: nationalcowboymuseum.org

I recently had a chance to sit for a portrait.  The process made me think about how I look to the rest of the world, how the mirror is only an estimation of my face, my identity.  I recall a Paul Simon lyric to that effect:  "...how I look to a distant constellation that's dying in the corner of the sky" or thereabouts. Maybe this is is what the Native Americans sensed; it was better to be as one was, without seeing from the outside, rather sensing oneself through the mind's eye instead of the camera's.

Thai Funk Gems : สามอัญมณีไทย

Our relatively local college radio station, WRAS (88.5) out of Georgia State University, has put a couple of Southeast Asian compilations, called Thai Dai and The Sound of Siam, into fairly heavy rotation lately, and I've been loving their power to transport and amaze. 

The following selections are considered luk thung, a brand of Thai pop that incorporates plenty of emotive, vibrato singing, but these picks do it with a distinctive flair, blending many international influences. Mighty entertaining!

Sroeng Santi -- an unforgettable style that most modern hipsters would die for!

Sroeng Santi covers Black Sabbath and manages to non-rhyme better than Dylan.

Sangthong Seesai -- some playful English thrown into this one!  Happy!

ดังนั้นจึงน่าเกรงขาม!

المغرب العربي | Amazigh Kateb

With so much tumult in the Mahgrib of late, Africa's crown of arid nations seems a land rife with struggle and grief.  Be that as it may, there have been victories and progress in places like Tunisia, and in Morocco leaders have managed to avert public discontent through stable governance.  Despite all this, I have a sense that the peoples of the vast Sahara's borders are resilient and joyful in the face of all the changes.

In terms of music, I've always been enamored with the mystical sounds of this much romanticized region.  The sand and the wind seem to permeate the textured voices of Tuareg singers telling stories of ancient oases and modern lives amidst the harsh landscape. Instruments like the gimbri and rabab with their droning strings add to the magic of crackling cold evening air after the sweltering heat of day has subsided.

Odd (but not that odd) to see a banjo amongst the legendary Nass El Ghiwane

When these sounds migrate to Europe and beyond, the qualities that define the old ceremonies and celebrations have been transmuted and fused with modern beats from the African Diaspora.  There is no better example of this thrilling mixture than the music of Amazigh Kateb, the son of the Algerian literary great Kateb Yacine who said that revolutionary writing "must transmit a living message, placing the public at the heart of a theater that partakes of the neverending combat opposing the proletariat to the bourgeoisie". Although my French is essentially non-existent, I gather that Amazigh Kateb uses his music in this same tradition to give a voice to the agents of political change.

Making some kids smile with Gnawa Diffusion

I came to discover Amazigh -- whose name means "free man" in Tamazight -- via his now defunct band called Gnawa Diffusion, which specialized in blending the varied musical ingredients of Northwest Africa with reggae, funk, and hip-hop.  Based out of Grenoble, France at the turn of the century, the Gnawa Diffusion mix is infectious and I can't seem to devote my full attention to much other music right now when the earbuds are in! Author Radu at BABE(B)LOGUE explains the roots of the band's name:

The group's name is a reference to the Gnawa, a tribe from Western Sudan who were deported to North Africa in the 16th century by the rulers of Fes and Algiers. While the Gnawa were officially converted to Islam by their new masters, they continued to worship their own African gods in private. The way Gnawa Diffusion see it, this historic tale of people uprooted from their homeland and forced to begin a new life in a foreign land, is remarkably similar to the lives of modern-day immigrants growing up in France.

Beyond hyper-relevant themes like immigration and equal rights, Amazigh's music is rhythmic, exotic yet accesible, and, as I've found, absolutely habit-forming, or at least that's been my case with the Gnawa Diffusion album titled Algeria (thanks, DCT!).  Now that I'm hooked, I hope it's just the first step in long march of exploration into this region's music and all the cultural exchange that goes on in France. 

Find out more about Amazigh, Yancine Kateb, and Gnawa Diffusion:

Listen - hear Gnawa Diffusion and check out the discography
Listen - of course, Gnawa Diffusion on Myspace
Listen - interviews and music on Babel Cafe radio (sorry, Français only)
Read - a fine interview with Amazigh by Fayçal Chehat
Read - the entire Gnawa post by Radu at BABE(B)LOGUE
Watch -  Amazigh Kateb & Safwane Kenani in a "green room" maybe
Explore - Amazigh Kateb's official site

Brian Smith (of Odd Trio, Georgia Guitar Quartet) Speaks: "Daedalus" @ Canopy Studios

If you're listening to the news, it's hard to disagree with the sentiment found in Chinua Achebe's title for his 1958 masterpiece "Things Fall Apart".  While all is in flux half a world away, in our own backyard musician and composer Brian Smith has been busy bringing worlds together with the premiere of his latest musical suite titled "Daedalus". 

On Saturday, March 19th at 7pm and again on Sunday, March 20th at 3pm, Canopy Studio at the Chase Warehouses in Athens, GA will host a remarkable union of original music and gorgeous aerial artistry, joined under the vision of composer Brian Smith with his troupe of talented musicians (including wife-flutist-trapeze artist, Natalie Smith, members of Georgia Guitar Quartet, Odd Trio, Maps and Transit) and aerialists performing on trapeze, silks, hoops, even bellydancing!  

Brian was kind enough to discuss "Daedalus", his inspirations and his process, in a recent interview:

AT: What was the inspiration for this particular suite of compositions? I know that the Greek myth is the central theme, but is there any other driving force or catalyst that led you to create this work? Does it help push you that not many people are doing this kind of avant-garde, chamber music performance in the indie-rock dominated landscape of Athens, GA? You're part of an impressive network of very talented musicians, and it's got to be exhilirating to join forces in this way.

BSmith: The inspiration for this work came about at the last Canopy show actually. Julie [Phillips] was performing a silks piece to a duet that I wrote for Natalie [Smith] and myself and the silks looked like wings and there was a big drop in the piece. It made me think of Icarus and I thought it would be neat to write a piece for Julie to perform based on Icarus. When rereading the Icarus story, however, I noticed that I felt more of a connection to Daedalus rather than Icarus. I really felt the tragedy of a father losing his child now that I’m a father as well. Also, Daedalus appears in so many other well known Greek myths and in most cases is the catalyst, so I thought it would be interesting to follow his story.

Here in Athens, there are so many great musicians doing so many great things, I feel like a drop in the bucket. I think everyone here pushes the envelope and blurs the lines of style and concept. It’s very inspiring to be immersed within such a place. As a composer, I feel like I just have to do what I do and hope someone likes it.

It’s absolutely exhilirating. I feel so lucky to be able to work with so many amazing musicians and aerialists and dancers and it’s even better to know that they are all good friends. It’s nice to have a reason to get all these folks together in one place. I like to think that I’m just creating a platform for all of these great artists to shine and have a good time making music.

AT: In previous discussions, you've mentioned mathematics and number theory -- like the Fibonacci Sequence that describes nature's spirals as in a sunflower -- as those relate to music. How do you use number theory to inspire your pieces, and are there particular rhythmic patterns that the audience can listen out for during the upcoming performances of "Daedalus" ?

BSmith: Absolutely. Over the past few years I’ve been developing my writing style using what I call “numerical symbology”. I got the idea from Carl Jung’s and Joseph Campbell’s idea of the collective unconscious, wherein universal archetypes are similarly expressed throughout human culture worldwide. Joseph Campbell discusses the idea of archetypes within world mythology characters and symbols. I think people have the same universal symbolic perception and experience about numbers, their shape, sound and meaning. I have tried to craft the pieces using some basic number symbols as well as more deeply hidden symbols for those who care to study the score more closely. I also think that there are certain musical mathematical symbols expressed in pitch, harmony and rhythm. Whether someone considers themselves “musical” or not does not matter in terms of their perception of these symbols. It is the people’s like or dislike of the music itself that illustrates the symbol’s success. With this work, I tried to pull many cords within people’s psyche. We’ll see if it come across.

AT: The Cretan labyrinth is part of the story of Daedelus. Is there any purposeful misdirection in the work, at all? Do you want the listener to feel a sense of confusion at any point on the way to a deeper resolution, that epiphany moment when the puzzle is solved?

BSmith: I found the labyrinth story of Daedalus to be the big connector of the entire story. In this work, the piece “Labyrinth” is the big connector of the work as a whole. The piece is subtitled “Puzzle Piece” and the piece itself is a big puzzle. If someone studies the score, the piece can be solved. I created 3 “tries”, basically 3 different scores, that help in solving the puzzle.

For the listener, there are big chunks missing in the piece and recognizable melodies arise that help determine the solution. The epiphany moments will perhaps come after the concert is over. All the pieces of the work draw from the “Labyrinth” and all the pieces lead to the “Labyrinth” in some way. It’s a cornerstone.

AT: Based on some of the main character's actions, I'm not sure he's such a friendly mythic hero. Are there certain melodic devices or key signatures that you prefer to use to depict that feeling of fleeting malice or impropriety? Not a nice Uncle, really!

BSmith: Actually, I felt like Daedalus was a sort of tragic hero, a very human figure. He’s also one of those characters that really undergoes a change over the course of his life and suffers greatly for the folly of his younger days. I think he really tries to do the right thing for the most part, but due to his past transgression with Perdix, he always seems to end up in tragic situations. But, he also helps a lot of people on the way, stands up against the wicked rule of King Minos, is respected at his craft and is well taken care of by the generosity of others. Overall, he’s quite a balanced figure symbolically. I use octaves to represent Daedalus as well as the key of b-flat. All the characters have their own musical gestures, pitches, intervals and keys. (i.e. - Icarus is chromatic falling gestures, the notes f and f#, 9ths and the key of F) As a dad, I think Daedalus does what he has to do in the given situation. Well aware of the risks, but without many options. Fatalistic, I guess.

AT: I realize that composition and arranging are arduous processes; are there modern tools that make the job a little less painstaking, or is it still a lot of sharpening the quill, mending holes in the parchment, cleaning up spilled ink and managing frustration, fending off mental illness? I know you know the image I'm drawing from: Amadeus, the scene with the cue ball on the billiards table, repetitvely banking off the cushions and back into Mozart's hand as he fervently scratches away at a masterpiece.

BSmith: Ha! Well, for me personally, I fret and stew and tweek and change pieces a lot before they get printed and I’m usually still making changes at rehearsals. I spend a lot of time in my head going over and over things. Probably get a little too obsessive at times. By the time I get to the computer, things move pretty fast. I like the speed of entering the music on the computer and I like not having to use a pencil or pen to make everything look pretty. I have poor penmanship and it hurts my hand to have to be that meticulous. I think all musicians stew over their work and are probably never completely satisfied. I think you just try to make each piece you write the best that it can be and when it’s time to let it go you have to let it go, warts and all.

Thanks to the composer for the insights that will make the experience of "Daedalus, a work by Brian Smith" all the richer.  For more details about the two shows on March 19th and 20th at Canopy Studio, follow links below:

The MusicSmiths
Canopy Studio
Georgia Guitar Quartet

Afro Soul Descarga

Sometimes a virtual discovery can feel as real as any record store find.  Today I found a bevy of radio sets from Afro Soul Descarga. It's cool that the D.J. -- James Stewart of RAJE in France -- is able to share the whole playlist so easily via Soundcloud waveform.  Set # 10, below, is two hours of rare music, most of which you wouldn't find elsewhere.

Standout tracks:
Part 1 - track 6. (37:20) Segun Bucknor plays "La La La Acoustic" with some pretty wild organ sounds from Nigeria.

Part 2 - track 9. (101:00) Sun Ra's "Nuclear War" is a classic anti-proliferation anthem:  "If they push that button, your ass gotta go...watcha gonna do without your ass?"  Good question.

Part 2 - track 10. (110:35) These four or five poems by Langston Hughes with punctuation by Charlie Mingus and co. are real swell, too. Said Hughes, "Dig and be dug in return."

Soul Descarga n°10 "Eastern Rebellion" part 1 by James Stewart on Mixcloud

Soul Descarga n°10 "Eastern Rebellion" (raje) part 2 by James Stewart on Mixcloud

Just to be fair -- for DJ gigs/ pour les soirées contact James : dimensionmusiques@gmail.com

For the full track listing and so much more music:  afrosouldescarga.blogspot.com

Attention International Visitors:

To any and all visitors -- especially those from abroad:

Over the years, I've noticed hits coming from many different parts of the globe, and I'm wondering what's bringing you here.  Many posts I've put up involve subject matter of interest to international readers, and that's probably because I'm into other cultures and other peoples.

"World Map", 2010, oil/collage on board (3 of 3) by Inez Storer. 

Find more work by this artist at www.inezstorer.com

Let me know what you think in a comment some time: What do you like? What interests you here? What would you like to know more about?  You name it --whatever!

Thanks for visiting!

NPR's "From The Top" @ UGA

Out of sheer happenstance and the kindness of friends, I had the recent pleasure of attending the taping of NPR’s “From the Top” at Hodgson Hall on the University of Georgia campus. The show, which was recorded live on Sunday, Feb. 27th, will be broadcast on March 22nd at 8:00 pm on WUGA 91.7 and 97.9 FM.

Hosted by the renowned concert pianist, Christopher O’Riley, “From the Top” is a national showcase for young, ultra-talented classical musicians. O’Riley leads the way with his experience (he was also a child prodigy) spotlighting brilliant instrumental soloists and often collaborating with the young virtuosi as they wow crowds across the country, week in and week out. Toss in a little banter with the kids, and the recipe becomes wholly entertaining, always full of emotional performances.

The first of the featured musicians was Arianna Smith (17 yrs.) on viola, who played a piece penned by her private teacher Paul Coletti, accompanied by Christopher O'Riley on a grand Steinway & Sons.  In a black formal evening gown, Ms. Smith looked -- and sounded -- the epitome of professionalism as she swayed emotively to the composition's gypsy rhythm.

A slight, lanky boy took the stage next and proceeded to mesmerize the crowd with his passionate piano playing, this time a  piece by Brahms.  Nicholas Allgeier, from North Carolina, waivered deftly on the bench as he brought some in the audience near to tears, his hands, arms and entire person emanating the soulful interpretation; it was a memorable performance with some impressive power, and all this from a 12 year old kid whose favorite pets are his chickens, he shared.

Sunday’s radio taping at UGA offered one (huge!) added bonus: the presence of flute master Sir James Galway, a man regarded by most, including host Christopher O’Riley, as the very best in the world. Galway’s duet with O’Riley on piano in the first third of the show was a telling highlight, with the bearded master commanding the crowd’s attention as he lithely sauntered through an allegro by Poulenc. His rotund gravitas notwithstanding, Sir James Galway seemed on the verge of lift-off by way of soaring glissandos, while simultaneously anchoring the sentiment of the Allegro malincolico with dark and husky, low-register musings.  The crowd's fervent applause verified that we were all aware of the presence of a great master of his art -- the man with the golden flute.  And he did a damn fine chicken impression, as well (tune in to WUGA for that)!

For a "halftime" treat, O'Riley professed his love for Athens' own R.E.M. and he did so with an interpretation -- rather freshly arranged -- of the pre-release track "It Happened Today" from the group's upcoming album Collapse Into Now.  It was a rumbling, glistening few minutes of intricate chords with a deceivingly simply melody floating atop plenty of roiling left-hand action.  This was a beautiful moment, a fleeting ode that O'Riley dedicated to R.E.M.'s advocate Bertis Downs.

Rounding out the program was a gorgeous piece of harp playing by Atlanta's own Angelica Hairston (18 yrs.) a "Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist".  Her hands where as lively and precise as any classical guitarist, and her artistry absolutely charmed all in attendance. 

The last piece of music was a trio led by Sir James Galway, which included the young Ms. Smith again on viola, as well as an award-winning violinist from San Franscisco, Kenneth Renshaw.  Their rendition of an Adagio - Allegro Vivace Disinvolto by Beethoven was sinuous yet energetic, and featured some sophisticated interplay between the teenaged string players, all while Sir James, with his immpecable flute, used his grandfatherly musical arms to embrace and guide the young talents; the crowd erupted in deafening applause that lasted and lasted until the musicians finally cleared the stage at Hodgson Hall. 

Find the full program notes at fromthetop.org and be sure to tune in to WUGA on Tuesday night, March 22nd, to hear the show.  These NPR programs are well worth their funding -- don't forget to tell your member of Congress if you agree.

Cradle Wave

This wave is a momentous force
Bound always forward
In the cradle of civilization
It rushed toward the shore, toward disintegration

Inevitable is the crash, the foam
The roiling erosion of stone
Receding or proceeding
It carries away bones and misery, or

Inundating the land and the people
The wave risks all,
Never returning to the sea
Souls thrash under the flood

Grasping at freedom and anarchy
Yet hope and liberty remain submerged
For now looking up from below, still
Yearning for what they have not

The Western horizon trembles softly
Cowering with unknown contingencies
The fear of losing control, Revolution wrought by
The critical mass of inequality

Kyle Dawkins (of Maps and Transit) Speaks!

According to the Maps and Transit site, "Kyle Dawkins has released two solo recordings under his own name, Conasauga (2002) and Walls became the world.(2004) and is a member of acclaimed chamber ensemble The Georgia Guitar Quartet. He lives and works in Athens, Georgia."

Collaborator and wife Julie Phillips is "a trapeze and aerial silks instructor at Canopy Studio and is a member of their acclaimed repertory company. She is also a bassist, percussionist, and writer."

The following is an email interview with Kyle Dawkins conducted in late 2010 after the release of the Maps and Transit project Songs for Divining in September, 2010.

AT: The instrumentation on the album is so unique and was dubbed "folktronica" at some point. How much of the sound is guided by the instruments themselves, or is it the sound in your mind's ear (so to speak) that dictates those choices? Can you recall any "happy accidents" as far as combining instruments to achieve a brand new quality of sound? Which instruments might be on your "dream list" regardless of cost -- is there a sound you're chasing that you could harness with a little help from Bill Gates?

KD: Many of the "happy accidents" happened as a result of the unpredictability of the stringed instruments that I was using. I've got some old mandolins and other stuff that have these really idiosyncratic, messed-up tones as a result of warped necks, frets, etc. I thought it gave the songs a sort of creaky, homemade feel. I love the sound of really antiquated or broken-down acoustic instruments. You can get sounds out them that you couldn't get otherwise if it was a new instrument off the shelf somewhere. Lately, I've been really into mellotrons. I love the often out-of-tune, fluctuating tape loops and it's spooky sort of canned sound. I used a bunch of "virtual" mellotrons from different sound applications on my computer but it's really hard to approximate the sound of a real one which I've yet to even try out. So yeah, I'd like a mellotron from Santa or Bill Gates.

AT: I'm sure this varies greatly, but how long does it take you to create a song in this way, with all the layers and pieces? Also, do you give express consideration, as you work out a new track, to how it might be performed live?

KD: I'll usually write the songs and then Julie and I will listen to it and figure out ways to juggle the parts using a combination of samplers. Usually the parts that would be interesting to see played live are the ones we rehearse and the more textural sounds we farm in using the samplers. The sampler parts are usually the ones that are more computer-based and aren't necessarily playable on guitars or mandolins or whatever. Usually a song will take me a day or two to write and a couple more days of Julie and I rehearsing and listening. Some songs seem to take forever though for whatever reason. Lately, we've been in the process of planning more collaborative song writing processes where we build the songs up as a duo instead of a composition that was written on a computer and figured out later as a band performance.

AT: Besides Applachia, which other regions of the world seem to contribute to these compositions. Is the Celtic tradition something you look to or particularly enjoy outside of writing and performing?

KD: I sometimes draw a lot from Asian and mid-Eastern folk instruments and melodies, some Sufi, and Indonesian music too. The Celtic influence is there mostly as a point of reference for certain melodies.

logo courtesy of  Georgia Guitar Quartet

AT: You both are into fine art and design (and you've collaborated with painter Chris Wyrick in the past), so if you were to assign a color scheme to this album, what would it be? To put it another way, what is the "look" of your sound?

KD: I wanted some parts of the album to have a murky, underwater, brambles-and-vines-everywhere kind of texture combined with the feeling of hearing music from the inside of a dusty music box. Those aren't colors exactly but they're places. I don't usually get a sense of color when I'm writing music as much as a sense of texture or place.

AT: As I listen to your album, I see so many images in my mind, and I know that response is individual to the listener. Have you ever been approached by filmakers who want to use your music as a soundtrack to a "talkie" ?

KD: I haven't done any soundtracks but it's something I've always wanted to do. Filmmaker anyone? Email me at kyledawkins75@gmail.com

Image by Bob Brussack courtesy of Athensview.com

AT: Along those same lines, it would be amazing to see some of your aerial artistry set to this music (and I have live at Canopy Studios!). Have you considered making a music video incorporating your other artistic endeavours?

KD: We've been in conversation about doing something like this with different people around town so yeah, hopefully something will be in the cards soon.

Songs for Divining ~  listen and download
Maps and Transit on Myspace ~ listen and enjoy

* Take note of an upcoming event featuring Julie Phillips' aerial work and Kyle Dawkins' guitar:

The Canopy Studio performance will feature aerial artistry on trapeze and silks with accompanying compositions by Brian Smith (Georgia Guitar Quartet) with Dawkins on guitar, among many other talented musicians.  It's bound to be an enchanting, memorable event that shouldn't be missed.  If you can be in Athens, GA, score some tickets!

Two shows plus an open house prior:

Saturday, March 19th @ 7:00  & 

Sunday, March 20th @ 2:00 

Sunday, March 6th @ 4 - 6 pm Canopy Studio open house

Maps and Transit ~ Songs for Divining

Kyle Dawkins' string work is precise and warm like a distant voice emanating from a light-soaked church. His musical partner and wife, Julie Phillips, adds clarity and depth with xylophone and bass to make the most recent project from Maps and Transit feel gently sculpted, more manually hewn than digitally. Its sound gives a cinematic impression, painterly and full of atmosphere; even the air in the room where you listen seems to change -- though almost imperceptibly -- from the very first notes. The handy term "folktronica" has been used to describe the overall impression, but such labels only limit the scope of the duo's latest work, Songs for Divining, released on Camomille Music.

More than pairing strings and percussion with laptop beats, the pair has created an amalgam of timbres to make an ethereal whole beyond categorization. Nevertheless, with a fisheye view, the organic sound at its heart envelops influences from chamber music to hushed rock to jangly mountain field recordings.

Songs for Divining ~ cover art by Vincent Fugere

The album's electronic sounds, far from evoking cold circuitry, resonate as naturally as the analog instruments. Subtle beats, faint tones, and counter-rhythms trickle down from the Appalachian terminus, only an hour's drive from the heart of Athens, GA, where Maps and Transit makes its home. Sonic textures sizzle and fizz beneath bent banjo notes and mandolin tremolos, held together by a windy backdrop, realizing what Dawkins refers to as a "brambles-and-vines" landscape that gives the project a vast root system and a distinct sense of place.

Polyrhythmic galloping and Celtic guitar lines in 'Three Pendulums' help envisage a wide green plain unfolding before a group of haggard wanderers. As a glistening sea rises in the distance, the mood lightens, hopeful yet cautious. The sauntering cycle of the tune seems to skirt the cliffside along the way, pushing a tenuous fragility that's quietly thrilling.

During 'Ponds', Dawkins' nylon strings zing like a faint sitar, but once layered with counter-melodies, the guitars swirl, falling into banjo as snare and hi-hat add accents. Later, one hears rustling cicadas on a nightbreeze, somehow welcomed from thin air yet completely native. These are the often subtle qualities that make Songs for Divining transcendental, intoxicating, and resistant to genre pigeonholes.

Further on, crows create a chorus that binds 'Mr. Arrowood' to an hour of fading light, just as the table is set for a rollicking, quasi-funk patch which features Phillips' talent for adding timely percussive accents as well as driven bass guitar. Time shifts and shuffling, courtesy of a beat-up mandolin, keep things off-kilter contributing to a brief extraterrestrial notion. Here the pair lithely tramps a route seemingly bushwhacked by the likes of electronica heavies Aphex Twin or Amon Tobim. Without straying too widely, though, the song is resolved with a familiar, delicate banjo as birds again take wing.

These nine compositions by Maps and Transit flow down and through a riparian zone, like a creek bound to join its kin, less a riled river and more a hundred life-supporting rivulets finding their entropic course. The listener, too, can find a route through time and terrain, first in the blind, then sensing the way under the quiet guidance of this duo's thoughtful musical vision.

Maps and Transit released Songs for Divining Sept. 17, 2010 on Montreal's Camomille Music.

Academy Awards Contest ~ Take Two

Calling all cinephile prognosticators!

The 83rd Annual Oscar Nominations were announced last week, and I figure since it was so much fun last year, why not do another "stab-in-the-dark" contest? Who's got the time to see all these films? Who's got the plain old intuition? Let's see...




If you want in, post your picks as a comment below this post. I'll go first, but I wouldn't recommend following my lead -- I haven't a clue this year.

Good luck to one and all!

And the nominees are:

Best Picture ~

“Black Swan”
“The Fighter”
“Inception”
“The Kids Are All Right ”
“The King’s Speech”
“127 Hours”
“The Social Network”
“Toy Story 3″
“True Grit”
“Winter’s Bone”

Best Direction ~

Darren Aronofsky for “Black Swan”
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for “True Grit”
David Fincher for “The Social Network”
Tom Hooper for “The King’s Speech”
David O. Russell for “The Fighter”

Actor in a Leading Role ~

Javier Bardem in “Biutiful”
Jeff Bridges in “True Grit”
Jesse Eisenberg in “The Social Network”
James Franco in “127 Hours”
Colin Firth in “The King’s Speech”

Actress in a Leading Role ~

Annette Bening in “The Kids Are All Right”
Nicole Kidman in “Rabbit Hole”
Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter’s Bone”
Natalie Portman in “Black Swan”
Michelle Williams in “Blue Valentine”

Actor in a Supporting Role ~

Christian Bale in “The Fighter”
John Hawkes in “Winter’s Bone”
Jeremy Renner in “The Town”
Mark Ruffalo in “The Kids Are All Right”
Geoffrey Rush in “The King’s Speech”

Actress in a Supporting Role ~

Amy Adams in “The Fighter”
Helena Bonham Carter in “The King’s Speech”
Melissa Leo in “The Fighter”
Hailee Steinfeld in “True Grit”
Jacki Weaver in “Animal Kingdom”

Adapted Screenplay ~

Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy for “127 Hours”
Aaron Sorkin for “The Social Network”
Michael Arndt, story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich for “Toy Story 3″
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for “True Grit”
Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini for “Winter’s Bone”

Original Screenplay ~

Mike Leigh for “Another Year”
Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson. Story by Keith Dorrington and Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson for “The Fighter”
Christopher Nolan for “Inception”
Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg for “The Kids Are All Right”
David Seidler for “The King’s Speech”

Animated Feature ~

“How to Train Your Dragon”
“The Illusionist”
“Toy Story 3″

Art Direction ~

“Alice in Wonderland”: Robert Stromberg (Production Design), Karen O’Hara (Set Decoration)
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1″: Stuart Craig (Production Design), Stephenie McMillan (Set Decoration)
“Inception”: Guy Hendrix Dyas (Production Design), Larry Dias and Doug Mowat (Set Decoration)
“The King’s Speech”: Eve Stewart (Production Design), Judy Farr (Set Decoration)
“True Grit”: Jess Gonchor (Production Design), Nancy Haigh (Set Decoration)

Cinematography ~

“Black Swan”: Matthew Libatique
“Inception”: Wally Pfister
“The King’s Speech”: Danny Cohen
“The Social Network”: Jeff Cronenweth
“True Grit”: Roger Deakins

Costume Design ~

“Alice in Wonderland”: Colleen Atwood
“I Am Love”: Antonella Cannarozzi
“The King’s Speech”: Jenny Beavan
“The Tempest”: Sandy Powell
“True Grit”: Mary Zophres

Documentary (Feature) ~

“Exit through the Gift Shop”
“Gasland”
“Inside Job”
“Restrepo”
“Waste Land”

Documentary (Short Subject) ~

“Killing in the Name”
“Poster Girl”
“Strangers No More”
“Sun Come Up”
“The Warriors of Qiugang”

Foreign Language Film ~

“Biutiful”: Mexico
“Dogtooth”: Greece
“In a Better World”: Denmark
“Incendies”: Canada
“Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi)”: Algeria

Music (Original Score) ~

“How to Train Your Dragon”: John Powell
“Inception”: Hans Zimmer
“The King’s Speech”: Alexandre Desplat
“127 Hours”: A.R. Rahman
“The Social Network”: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Music (Original Song) ~

“Coming Home” from “Country Strong” Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
“I See the Light” from “Tangled” Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater
“If I Rise” from “127 Hours” Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong
“We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3″ Music and Lyric by Randy Newman

Visual Effects ~

“Alice in Wonderland”: Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1″: Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi
“Hereafter”: Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojanski and Joe Farrell
“Inception”: Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb
“Iron Man 2″: Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick

Check back some time after the show for the winner; I'll post it in the comments!

Thanks for playing!

Odd Trio: Now with Caffeine!

Seriously, it (read: jazz-fusion by ultra-gifted, classically trained players) is a good time, and that can't be denied. I'm not just being neighborly when I say that hearing Athens' own Odd Trio makes for a night of level eleven, funk-shock treatment, delivering all the positive, residual effects only that kind of instrumental intensity can provide.

Check out my latest review of the gig on Athens Music Junkie.

Find the Odd Trio @ Facebook