On May 1st I commence 90 days of performances in and around the camera obscura, an incredible structure of marvel, wonder and nostalgia within kissing distance of the Minas Basin. These tides helped give birth to a new mode and approach to the guitar, an instrument I have 28 years of experience with. My connections to the strings and wood go as deep and far as my blood pounds red. The discovery I stumbled upon on October 4th 2016 have changed the course of my life. Like the vessel it was named after, WANDARIAN is the bird within taking flight or the invisible winds that wander and travel all corners and edges of seas and lands. It marks a spiritual rebirth and captures sounds, textures, timbres and notes not readily available to the instrument. I am playing both sides of the string, and all points in between finding tones that resonate with sounds of music from all over the earth. I am highly dissatisfied with the status quo. For the last week I have been pondering hard of the cruelty and hatred that infiltrates so much of what we’re exposed to in this age. It has kept me awake for nights and has cut into all my waking moments, this cruelty and hatred I cannot reconcile. And then I thought of this performance project and the reasons why. On the deepest level, 90 days in the camera obscura is no different than doing what I do and have done everyday for the last 28 years. Herein lies the answer to reconcile and counter all the hatred, by sharing this music that is unique to me, a gift I have nurtured, sacrificed, lived and almost died for. Music I have ritualized, fantasized and continue to dream and treasure, expand, contract, dissect and mine the deepest reaches of my consciousness and the ever changing nature of molecules.
Connectivity of the ages, through sound and music as the universal language. Dismantle boundaries and dissolve borders, to overthrow the status quo. Using the guitar as vessel, like the seas that circulate and hug every shore. (Thermohaline circulation (THC) is a part of the large-scale ocean circulation that is driven by global density gradients created by surface heat and freshwater fluxes.) These waves we wade in have reached every corner of the world at some point and will continue to spread and drift into one great sea. We are one great land. Does it get more beautiful than that?
A new sound on familiar strings from calloused hands and a full heart. A struggle, a search, the embodiment of an alternative way of life. The separation of mind / body / spirit is a facade. It has led civilization down ego driven roads and curated beliefs that become trappings. This separation has grave consequences and takes a lifetime to re-balance these weights. Creation comes in all forms and is everywhere. I continue to give most of my life over to music. The volumes I am releasing are the encyclopedias of a new journey. There is a new vocabulary at hand but I must uncover and decode it. The results are what I hope at the very least are musical if not entirely "music." The moment I discovered this inroad, the possibilities have become forever etched in like a permanent muse that has grown into my flesh.
Volume I is the explosion. Fragments of the old self remain out of desperation, futile attempts out of necessity. All the anguish, self harm, old habits, notions of self and ego all dropped away. It is pure and raw struggle.
Volume II is acceptance, understanding and observation. Knowing that we are our emotions and we are responsible for our realities.
I am mixing volumes III and IV. Soon both will be released. Volume III is electric and again sticking to my firm parameters of solo guitar performances, no overdubs or looping or effects. Volume IV is a cold and windy November evening of nylon string guitar performances in the camera obscura. It has calming effects and I was just trying to play beautiful music on a beautifully wild night.
I am trying to make music for everyone that came before and everyone that will become and everyone that is. A unifying listening experience connected to the breath but bound by stars beyond grasp and reach. Tied to each other like the grass that beds the forest or the roots hugging tangled out of sight where we bury the dead. An immersive sound experience, wandarian is a mode of transportation for molecules wanting to find home. It is a guitar technique employing capo (transposing device for the guitar) manipulations.
The process is what I strive to uphold and it is this most difficult to share. If I fail to honour the ten minutes of stretching and meditating the music does not flow. It stumbles like water blocked by fallen trees or beaver dams. I will never forget that first session and the first moment captured on tape of this journey. I simply called it "WANDARIAN." I was scared shitless. I had to let go, shed the old skin and step into a new pathway leading to the unknown.
