crossing 2- painting and scanograph by Kevin Macneil Brown, 2016.
Crossing the broad waters of
In the outward experiencing of the water, sky, shifting
light and shorelines, something also happens inside the self.
The piece is made up of the following layers:
-
Recordings made by the composer at the Burlington ,
Vermont Lake
Champlain . These include the sounds of waves, boat motors, ferry
horns, birds, and random voices, including a pre-recorded sight-seeing
description broadcast from a tour boat on the water.
-
Transformations of those on-site recordings,
made by processing pitch, duration, harmony, timbre, and spatial relationships.
(This layer is actually made up of 3 layers.)
-
A guitar improvisation made with a
scale derived by ear from the previous layer. (This section is also presented alone
with the title “Cobalt and Cerulean.”)
-
A spoken text taken from the
appendix of TWO CENTURIES OF FERRY BOATING ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN by Ralph Nading
Hill.
Using the proportion
of 5:3 as a guide to structure and arrangement, these layers were assembled in
the multi-track and mixed.
The piece can be listened to from beginning to end as a
journey, or can simply play as background and be dipped in and out of at random
or as desired. One might also let the
soundscape lead to sleep. My experience so far is that it reveals new details
and sounds very different with each listening—and with each way of listening.
-KMB, September
2016.
