"groundwater" performed by Open Music

I had a great early November weekend in State College, PA, hearing my latest concert piece “groundwater” performed by my friend Kevin Sims’ group Open Music.

Written for voice, percussion, harp, yangqin, Yamaha DX-7 & contrabass, “groundwater” took inspiration from the photographs of environmental blight, and ultimately led me to the story of Love Canal - a Niagara Falls neighborhood built on top of an industrial waste dump that eventually experienced severe health impacts and a scandal in the late 1970s. The emboldened residents and community brought it to national attention and ultimately helped bring forth the 1980 Superfund Act as the first site. The text is sourced from interviews with residents at the time and more recently, as well as legal documents & company statements.

The piece was informed by the Vintagia card deck, created by Sereptie / Acid Horizon. A retro-inspired reimagining of the I Ching similar to Eno’s Oblique Strategies, Vintagia is a deck of cards with the I Ching hexagrams, creative prompts, and beautiful archival photos from the 1970s U.S. EPA-funded collection “Documerica.” (Also a fascinating story in itself.)

Thank you to Kevin, Open Music and Acid Horizon - it was a great hang!