Thousand
Year Dreaming / floating world
by Annea Lockwood
Pogus Productions, Chester, NY, 2007
Audio CD, 8 tracks, 7901"
Pogus 21045-2.
Reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen
Hogeschool Gent
Belgium
stefaan.vanryssen@gmail.com
Annea Lockwood wrote Thousand Year
Dreaming (1990) with the musicians
on this recording, their particular strengths
and inclinations, very much in mind. It
grew out of an improvisation piece, Nautilus,
which Art Baron, Scott Robinson and Lockwood
realised in 1989. Baron plays conch shell,
trombone, and didjeridu. Thats just
the start. Jon Gibson plays didjeridu
as well. And so does John Snyder, who
also wields the waterphone. Peter Zummo,
surprisingly, plays didjeridu and trombone.
So there are already four didjeridus.
J.D. Parran is on clarinet and contrabass
clarinet, no didjeridu. Libby Van Cleve
blows the oboe and the English horn and
Michael Pugliese plays the tam-tam and
clapping sticks. Another tam-tam and stones
are played by Charles Wood whats
in a name? Fortunately, N. Scott Robinson
is on tam-tam (!), pod rattle, frame drums
and conch shell (!). To top it off, Annea
Lockwoods voice can be heard, too.
According to the author of the liner
I suppose it is Ms. Lockwood herself,
but no name is given the sound
of four didjeridus, a number of primitive
percussion instruments, conches and trombones,
shaped by the penetrating and sensuous
edge of oboes and clarinets, set her imagination
on fire. It reminded her of the cave paintings
of Lascaux. And obviously, this is all
about the sonic energy that we, Westerners,
are so eagerly looking for. Imagine, at
one point during the piece, the four didjeridus
play together and "wander through
the audience, exploring the spaces
acoustics, playing into a listeners
shoulder here, a foot there sonic
massage."
The second part of this CD is filled by
a collage of eleven recordings of environmental
sounds made by composer friends of Ms.
Lockwood. "Each of these recordings
captures a truly transitory series of
moments floating worlds
fixing them digitally, but temporarily.
When played, they become transitory once
more, and evaporate a paradox I
like very much."
It appears as if Ms. Lockwood excels at
bringing together the work and the qualities
of a lot of friends, blending their efforts
into something she can than elevate to
a higher level. I sincerely hope she will
forgive me if I can only hear a succession
of pre-recorded environmental sounds or
a longish beaded string of conch shell
whooshes and didjeridu-doos sprinkled
with clapping stones and the sound of
a forlorn oboe. There certainly is an
audience for this. People who can perceive
the spiritual in the flickering of a candle
flame or the rising of the smoke from
a campfire. I am sorry, but I am, and
remain, an unbeliever.