2017 In Review

Happy holidays to everyone reading this! Thanks for being a part of an amazing year of sonic adventures. Without the connection I get by sharing these sounds, moments and memories with you all, this would be meaningless. In the midst of the busy holiday season I hope you’re all finding moments of connection and peace.
If you’re looking for a tonic to the holiday sensoral overload, I recommend two Mikronesia ambient albums I released this year. :dibba-sota is a quiet sonic meditation on Deep Listening and natural spaces and Dissolve is an hour long continuous piece of music that was described by music legend King Britt as “sonic sage”, great for clearing and cleansing a space. In the spirit of the season all the albums on my Bandcamp (including the Landscapes series) are “name your price”. So you can download for free or pay any price that’s good for you 🙂

dibba-sota

Also this year I released three albums in a series called Landscapes. These albums were created at artists residencies around the world this year. The intention of these albums is to allow the listener to experience a sense of place through listening and explore the sonic character of a geographic location. The environmental recordings are augmented with subtle effects and “sonic photography” techniques to represent our own coloring of sound through listening consciousness.

Landscapes 3: Iceland

In 2018 I’ll be continuing my nomadic life with residencies at Com Peung in Chiang Mai, Thailand and PECAH in Uttarakhand, India. I’m very excited to travel to Asia for the first time and focus on the soundscape recording, creation and Echozoo at these residencies.
In addition to traveling and releasing music this year I was glad to begin a new collaborative project Mixes from the Field, with fellow Deep Listener Sharon Stewart. This project seeks to connect people of all ages to explore modes of Deep Listening and the work of Pauline Oliveros through field recording, sonic meditation and music. Our initial project was supported by American Composers Forum for workshops in Philadelphia at Village of Arts and Humanities. My connection with VAH will continue in 2018 in an exciting community project around a basketball court in North Philadelphia that’s being renovated by the Philadelphia 76ers. More on this early next year….

VAH Students exploring the sonic spaces above Philadelphia

Mixes from the Field also led workshops and soundwalks in Berlin, Germany and Arnhem, Netherlands. We’re hoping to continue the work in 2018!
A quick note for anyone in Philadelphia on New Year’s Eve. I’ll be leading a dharma talk, discussion and silent meditation at Springboard Studio in Mt. Airy from 10pm through midnight. The theme for the night will be intention and the infinite potentials found in the ground of being. Hope to see you there! It will be my last night in Philly as I fly to Thailand on Jan 1!
Again, thanks for being a part of an amazing 2017 and I look forward to keeping in touch with you all in 2018.
with Mettā,
Michael

Deeply Listening This Week

This has been an amazing week re-connecting with the work and community of my late teacher Pauline Oliveros. This week marks the beginning of my collaboration with Sharon Stewart in our new project Mixes from the Field combining Deep Listening, field recording, sound art and sonic ecology practices.

We began the week attending a memorial concert for Pauline in her hometown for the last 35 years, Kingston, NY. It was a beautiful day of readings, dedications, music and listening. Here’s a photo of a group sonic meditation from the event at Kingston City Hall.

Mixes from the Field began yesterday with our first class teaching high school students about listening and creating music from the sound world around them at our American Composers Forum sponsored residency at Village of the Art and Humanities in North Philadelphia. Here is a photo from the first day teaching the students about various microphones and sound processing techniques using an iPad.

Finally, just a reminder there’s still space for our day-long Deep Listening, Field Recording and Sonic Art Workshop for adults in West Philadelphia called Hidden Pulses. It’s Saturday March 25, 10am-5pm, with a two-hour break for lunch, sound-walks and a field recording outing! You can register here online, or just come to Art Church of West Philadelphia at 10am. Sliding scale payment for artists and students 🙂

Feel free to email me with questions about the workshop.

Keep on listening!
Michael

Mixes from the Field

‘m very excited to announce a new collaborative project, a new residency and a call for used keyboard donations for a community art and music school in Philadelphia…

Mixes from the Field

Last spring I met Dutch sound artist Sharon Stewart at EMPAC during a day-long meeting of Deep Listening teachers, students and community. After the symposium, during a layover at Penn Station and on the train ride back to Philadelphia we connected over our shared interest in field recording and sound art philosophies. From that meeting and a continued connection online we developed this new and exciting framework.

Mixes from the Field

Today, we’re pleased to announce a new website, teaching, performance and collaborative project called Mixes from the Fieldexploring the connection between environment, field recording, Deep Listening, sonic ecology and sound art.

This year I am honored to be Composer in Residence at Village of the Arts and Humanities with support from American Composers Forum. The residency will culminate in a week-long workshop with students at the Village and Mixes from the Field. During this week-long intensive we will be teaching the students about Deep Listening techniques, how to listen and remain connected to the environment and how to make music from the found sounds of their world. It will include hands-on technical workshops, field trips, sound walks and sonic meditations. The finished work by the students will be posted to the Mixes from the Field website and be part of the global community of listening and sharing.

Village of Arts and Humanities


Also Mixes from the Field will be hosting a day-long Deep Listening / Field Recording workshop for adult artists on Saturday March 25 at Art Church (52nd and Webster Street) in West Philadelphia. Look for a detailed announcement email coming soon…


CALLING ALL LONELY KEYBOARDS

As part of my residency at Village of the Arts and Humanities, I’ve expressed interest in starting to give keyboard lessons after school to the students there. The Village already has an impressive lineup of free music performance and production lessons for students. They already teach guitar, drums, music production, singing, rapping, podcasting, but not keyboards/piano! Why? Because they need some keyboards! This is where you can help.

  1. Do you have an old or new keyboard with a minimum of 50 keys (synthesizer or digital piano) that you’d like to donate? It should have full sized keys with touch sensitive velocity.
  2. Would you like to “sponsor a keyboard” by helping to purchase a keyboard for VAH?
  3. Do you know of a music or piano store who might like to donate a keyboard to VAH?

Once we have a few keyboards I’m going to start giving lessons there as part of my composer residency. In addition to teaching keyboard technique, the keyboard can be a gateway into the wide galaxy of music theory, chords, songwriting, collaboration, improvisation, playing by ear, sound design and self-expression.

Please get in touch at [email protected] or 267-312-2821 if you’d like to be involved!

Thank you!!

Michael