Further work…

Further work at Experimental Sound Studio with Terri Kapsalis on her audio art version of her book, “Jane Addams’ Travel Medicine Kit”, took place on Tuesday, January 22nd with Damon Locks added to the mix and Alex Inglizian again behind the board. Damon created incredible pieces based on sampling components of the songs I recorded for Terri at the first session, on January 16th: “Mountains of Alonistaina”, “The Land of Noonday Night”, “Lonesome Blues”, and “I Didn’t Raise My Boy To Be a Soldier”, and some built around sonic suggestions from Terri (a rhythmic groove Damon invented from a recording of a steam engine was completely brilliant). His work was so expansive, as I sat in the engineering room listening with Terri she indicated that she’d need to rethink her initial organizational plan for the project.

Damon and I then recorded some improvised duos based on verbal cues from Terri. Though I don’t get to play with him often enough (our last opportunity was at Fred Anderson Park during August of 2024) it feels like the musical conversation between us is always deep and surprising. Yesterday’s session was no exception and Damon’s ability to dive into his sound sources and quickly find completely flexible combinations is a marvel to witness. In addition to the duos inspired by Terri’s suggestions, we fabricated spontaneous arrangements of Eleanor Smith’s “The Land of Noonday Night”, Jonny Dodds’ “Lonesome Blues”, and then the rebetika “Mountains of Alonistaina” and Bryan and Piantadosi’s anti-war anthem, “I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier”, by merging them.

Another great day at ESS and I can’t wait to hear the end results of this process when Terri completes the project- my thanks to her, Damon, and Alex for the continuous inspiration.