Hillsounds and Dollfur

 Lynne writes (and edits sounds) from Moon Hill Farm, a civil war era farmhouse at the top of a mountain near Claryville NY. She lives with Jean, who has owned the farm since the 60’s and her mum Carmella. This is her latest post from the Catskills…………………………………………………………

studiowindow
Moon Hill Farm, Catskills NY

i’m a woman who came of age in new york city in the 1970s, when definitions of creative art were really expanding. as a young person I heard a lot of music that was really brand new. it changed the very definition of listening, of being with sound. the listener became part of the music itself. pretty great.

as soon as i was able to use a tape recorder, i started to record & manipulate sound.

i was a gifted child artistically. i entered my first art shows at about age 3 or so. as i got older, other kinds of creative work were more interesting to me, at various times.

as a child of the 60s & 70s i responded most strongly to music. i think i’ve always loved music more than any other kind of creative work.

new technologies of digital sampling & sound manipulation are a true blessing to me, because i can compose sound without the benefit of formal musical training. it’s very intuitive.

the work i do doesn’t involve music as much as it involves opportunity. i don’t want to present a sonic ultimatum. i think many composers present a sonic ultimatum. often, the listener is forced into a specific experience of music. a lot of popular music is fascist. you can experience it freely, with no potential.

ltcolor5si like the idea of a sonic experience that doesn’t insist upon your perceptions.

i’m trying to create a space for you in which you experience yourself in sound. what that means is leaving a lot of air within it to breathe.

the ways in which you create a breathing space in a sonic construct .. that’s interesting.

hearing a lot of John Cage & reading/hearing about his creative processes & attitudes, has helped me enormously. his approach was very, very open; he allowed for things to happen to his compositions and through his compositions that are, frankly, maps to a type of personal, emotional & intellectual liberation. i don’t know if there’s another purpose to creative work as worthwhile as that.

creative engagement in any discipline should serve us in our liberation. that means making breathing room. it means resisting an impulse to make experiences 100%. because it can’t be done. you cannot make experience. you can’t dictate perception. so why bother with that? Why try that? let’s see what else we can do with creative purpose.

check out Lynne’s blog: http://dollfur.tumblr.com/LRAIN

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