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Limited Edition Cassette
threnody for rocking chair began its life as an outdoor contemporary dance piece which took place along a stretch of abandoned railroad track in Corner Brook, Newfoundland. The work was commissioned by Candice Pike in Motion.
As a Newfoundlander-living-away, I was experiencing the island in short bursts: flying home every so often to work on a creative project, visit family and leave again. Whenever I was home, it felt right, like a place I belonged. Leaving was difficult. I set out to make threnody for rocking chair reflect the sense of disconnectedness I was dealing with. On one hand, I utilized many folk instruments with personal, sentimental value to create the sounds: my father’s first guitar, his barely-functional double bass, my mother’s harmonicas, the baby grand piano I spent many summers playing in the small town of Woody Point, NL during work contracts. I ran long, improvisational tracks through an old 4-track cassette recorder to create a warm, saturated, slightly “broken” sound which, to my ears, gives the sense of music half-remembered, deteriorating in real time. All these elements lead to a warm, connected and spontaneous sound. On the other hand, those takes were then harshly chopped and digitally rearranged in a way that suggests electronic music. Although every sound on the album is completely acoustic, the way the material is treated gives the impression of unreality. It is on this line, the line between warmth and cold, contentment and dread, connectedness and disconnectedness, that threnody for rocking chair steps.