These sounds are beginning to find their way into ambient soundscapes.  Good things to follow, the Muse willing …

If you read the previous entry, I’ve been steeping in the sounds of Olonzac.  I walk the twisting inner corridors of the village both day and night and find myself listening either through the strangeness of a foreign body or through a set of headphones connected to my ‘Zoom H4n.”  I’m not sure I’ll ever get over the self-conscious feeling of looking like an amateur ethnographer (or just an oddball).

Anyway, I mentioned the church bells, the snippets of the very musical French voice, and The Voice.  I recorded some samples of each of these and then, aided and inspired by “Bistro Fada,” a song by Stephane Wrembel from the soundtrack of Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris,” my daughter Zinta and I created une petite paysage sonore.

Have a listen.  No red wine required …

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20104997/Olonzac%20S%27il%20Vous%20Plait_.mp3

Bonjour mes amis

I have arrived in France for a six-week stay with my family. We’re living in a small village called Olonzac in the south of France.  Make no mistake, this is the heart of wine county.  The vineyards look bleak and dreary at this time of year (mid-January) but the grapes from previous growing seasons, now bottled and selling for just a few euros in the local shops, taste wonderful and serve as a reminder that the exquisite light and ocre-coloured soil are magic, indeed.

Making art?

Not yet, not yet.  I’m soaking in scenery and letting some of the french language roll through the space where most often my ‘english language voice’ tracks the muse and takes notes on what I’m experiencing.

Sounds. I am beginning to record them.  We live in an old stone building in the village where the narrow alleys twist and turn to create an ancient labyrinthe. Stone walls, many in beautiful disrepair, lead deeper and deeper into this thousand year-old village.

From my shuttered window on the 2^nd floor, I have begun to record the bells of the local church and the sounds of voices and footsteps that echo in the alley below.  There is also a strange disembodied voice that emanates through loudspeakers situated throughout the village informing invisible residents of the local goings-on. (Anyone seen ‘The Triplets de Belleville”???) These announcements are usually followed by a quick hit of musique (a crooning chanteur).

These sounds are beginning to find their way into ambient soundscapes.  Good things to follow, the Muse willing …

Finding Form

Of course this is how it must begin:

standing on any green hill

at the mercy of all blue rivers,

reinventing the colours of sky.

Three perfect ravens.

Waiting for the moon

to find a form for the planet’s giving way:

shade born out of light.

As a matter of course,

the palette gives and receives

in combinations until the body

is no longer a body.

Whisper the incantation

as it was given, as breath.

Walk around the canvas three times,

counterclockwise for luck and momentum.

Wind the world up until

it spins on spit and sweat

and the bloody pitch of a fallen

pine aware of nothing but

the first drop of rain repeating

itself—three times counterclockwise,

putting the hex on cliché: out of the blue

words fall on open fields,

plant themselves and wait

for the world to imagine itself

out of a seed or run its course like an

avalanche down a garden path

ripping up colour as it goes.

Please come and help me celebrate the launch of a book of poetry I’ve just released called As Though it Could be Otherwise. There will be a number of readings over the next while. The first of these readings will be an official book launch to be held at Wintergreen Studios on Sunday November 27, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

The second launch will be held Thursday December 8 at 7:30 p.m. at Studio22 Open Gallery. Located in the Market Square in Kingston at 320 King St.E. 2ndFloor. RSVP 613 546 7461 or toll-free 866 842 9895 or informationPlease@studio22.ca

As a final note, there will also be some highly secretive and clandestine readings at undisclosed locations where poetry is considered too dangerous and subversive to be held in public. If you would are interested in hosting such a reading please let me know. (All that’s required for a reading is a few interested folks who love to be read to.)

With thanks Gary

Greetings One and All

Thanks to all of you who have been taking the music home with you and for your continued support …

Happy August. There’s been lots going on this summer. I did my annual summer library tour in July promoting 2 new recordings, both live performances in Yarker. I recorded 2 live shows with Sheesham & Lotus in March 2011, one at the Yarker Family School, the other at Riverside United Church. Both of these records are, in many ways, placeholders to keep things moving as I continue to work on the long-awaited “What’s the Big Idea?!? album. Said album is proceeding slowly but surely and I can see a tiny light at the end of the tunnel (which is not really a tunnel so much as a busy life). I’m just completing the Audio Archive Project for the Yarker Family School, library and community under the categories of ‘Songs’ ‘Stories’ and ‘Sounds’

In other summer fun, I was an instructor at the Blue Skies Music and Arts Camp in July which was followed by Blues Skies Music Festival. Fireweed did a Sunday afternoon concert featuring the songs of Bruce Cockburn. Blue Skies also saw the debut of Sedan Delivery, a 4-piece band that performs Nothing but Neil (Young). It was a raging success. Rob Unger from Fireweed and myself joined forces with drummer Pete Bowers and guitarist Kevin Bowers. Wow. Please stay tuned for more action and more music.

With thanks

Gary

Meantime, as Neil Young says,

“Live music is better, bumper stickers should be issued.”