Summer 2021 Newsletter
Dear Friends,
Greetings in this time of the “opening up,” the tentative unveiling of our faces, the hopeful and nervous re-entry into a world where we may re-engage with our social lives, live-and-in-person. Will we? How will we?
It has been windy here on our hill.
So much so that at times I have taken to recording the sound of the wind from inside of the house in lieu of outdoor field recordings.
This Newsletter looks at the present, the past, and a seed of the future.
in this issue:
+ Goat Girl CD project update
+ The brilliance that is Thollem
+ A moment with John Cage
+ A short new poem / the seed of Extraction
+ Join me on Instagram and Bandcamp
THE GOAT GIRL’S MISSIVE
I have been working for a long time getting this CD together and finally, it is near completion. The package design is ready and the tracks are in the final stages of mixing. I expect to be pressing CDs in the next month or so.
“The Goat Girl’s Missive” project is a series of sound portraits inspired by Grimms’ fairy tales that have been refurbished and refreshed to put a new spin on the old by reconstructing their meaning via original, recorded compositions.
In these sonic tales you may find wolves who do not get what they deserve, spinning wheels that collide with modern machinery, and horses, chickens, and witches who may be sucked down a kitchen sink drain in a matter of seconds.
All of the voices and sounds are made primarily by me, with guest vocal contributions from Nils Frykdahl and Bob Ernst. Post-production by Eric Oberthaler.
Samples may be heard at
Please email me if you would like to pre-order a CD.
THOLLEM MCDONAS
Thollem is an extraordinary player of the piano, improviser, singer, and composer. I have known Thollem for many years. The first time I met him I was engaging in some performance art in San Francisco, fondling books while sitting in a tub of water. Audience was invited to interact and Thollem did.
After we were acquainted, he came to my studio in Oakland to make music. I remember him driving up in a small car which had all of the lettering removed that might have told what kind of car it was. This was his way of stepping outside the world of commercialization. I was intrigued.
Thollem is a deeply unusual human and I love that about him. He and his longtime partner Angela recently came to visit and the reuniting was a delight. Here are links to a song of mine he played on many years ago, as well as his website where you can peruse some of what he has produced in the past number of years.
A MOMENT WITH JOHN CAGE
When I was a Composition student at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle in the early ‘90s John Cage came for a residency. The little performance hall on the South campus was packed to overflowing and very quiet as he talked in his gentle voice about mushrooms and anarchism. In the ‘50s he had developed his famous prepared piano at Cornish as well as working with Merce Cunningham on chance operations, so the school has a special connection and attachment to him and that pivotal history.
At the end of the week, there was an after-party at one of the teacher’s houses and a few of the students somehow slipped in. I was shy, but someone insisted on snapping this picture of me with him. John Cage died around a year later. His bold and visionary life, philosophy, and compositions continue to reverberate for so many of us.
A SHORT NEW POEM / THE SEED OF EXTRACTION
Here is new text which is serving as a cell for the sound installation I am working on for the international art gallery project, Extraction: Art at the edge of the abyss.
My working title is:
Explorations of the Roblar Quarry / a moving picture in sound
Over the edge, your beautiful body
Your beautiful edgy body
The beautiful edge
Body over
BEING (ON) SOCIAL (MEDIA)
I am sometimes engaging in the world of social media. Please find/follow/join me?
Instagram: @merlincolemann
Bandcamp: merlincoleman.bandcamp.com