david shea: rituals

USA-born, now Australian-based composer David Shea is perhaps best recognized for his connections to John Zorn and the NYC downtown scene. In 2014, he returns with a new edition of outer-wave electro-acoustic deconstructions. Semiotic acoustic renderings, like dreams you lose before waking. From David Shea: "These pieces have been recorded over the last five years; combining ensembles of acoustic and electronic instruments, samples, and field recordings made in Australia and composed during my time living in Melbourne. In this period I have immersed myself in traditional ritual music centered on Buddhist and Taoist traditions as well as the work of Luc Ferrari and Giacinto Scelsi. The Rituals here are influenced by ceremonial rituals as well as internal and personal ones and pieces, which have combined the oldest and newest technologies. The character of the ritual puts the experience of listening at the center of the works, immersion in the experience of the sound as the focus. As the field of Cymatics has shown us in recent times, sound vibrations have effects on physical matter in specific ways, related to the frequencies, harmonics, time, relationship with space and the listener, something traditional healers, and those working with sound and music, have been aware of for a very long time. The ears are only one part of this extended network of hearing and the body and its senses are in constant communication with internal and external realities and beliefs. Scelsci explored this deeply in his music exposing how much life exists in a single sound and how many layers are involved in any relationship with that sound. Ferrari's work has always shown me that the connection between a composer of music, a recorder of sound and the use of the studio or electronics as physical instruments, is a process of exploring both musical structure and the full immersion in the experience of vibration (sound, light, movement) constantly around us. The Ritual forms that I explore here are a relationship between these influences, both real and imagined, with a combination of traditional instruments, samplers and electronic instruments. This weaving of these materials into patterns of layered histories, traditions, styles, techniques and the inseparable internal experience of composing them led to the hybrid of forms which each piece explores." Features contributions from Oren Ambarchi, Joe Talia, Scanner, Lawrence English, and Girish Makwana.