when the sun rises in spite of hooligans...
a strange weekend indeed.
i arrived at the performance space saturday afternoon around 4 pm, to do a soundcheck for my sunrise performance. i was quite happy to discover a perfection of site. the performance space was in the southwest corner of the carousel building, facing the coastline with a curved wall of windows - absolutely ideal for the light shifts outside to be experienced by listeners inside. the soundcheck went relatively smoothly, and i was quite sure i would be able to have the audience hovering in a state between gentle sleep and barely awake.
12 hours later i arrived at the space at 4 am, only to discover an abundance of policemen, and some serious chaos. it seems some hooligans were wreaking havoc on the carousel itself, someone called the cops, and just as i arrived, the carousel space, as well as much of the rest of the festival, was shut down. i was told i would not be able to do the performance.
driving home in the dark i decided that the sun was still depending on me, so upon arrival, i put my gear together haphazardly on the floor of my studio, opened the garage door, and just as the sky was beginning to feel a slight presence of light - probably around 5:35 or so - i played a nice improvised piece for about 20 minutes. when the performance was done, i looked up to see that the light had completely changed.
i have to say i felt really bad for the wonderful and dedicated fans who woke before dawn and arrived only to find the venue barricaded. so i decided to post the performance that no one saw or heard other than me and the sun, for free download/listening. as you can see in my little telephone photos, the sound seemed to make the sun very happy.
the piece was performed with a lap steel guitar, an old paia oz battery powered synthesizer, a contact microphone, my voice, and two very old delay pedals. it was recorded live direct to a small zoom h4 recorder.
