This performance was part of:
Call & Response
A benefit concert for Drepung Gomang Monastery in South India
Curated and produced by Julie Adler at REDCAT, Los Angeles, Feb. 2004

with Tibetan Monks from Drepung Gomang Monastery in South India and members of Cal Arts School of Music faculty and alumni: David Rosenboom, Jacqui Bobak, Mark Bobak, Michael Jon Fink, Vicki Ray and Julie Adler. New works composed by Rosenboom, Bobak, Fink and Adler were world premieres created specifically for and inspired by this event. These composers responded in their own ways to ancient chants of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition as offered and performed by the monks of Drepung Gomang.

Call & Response was an experiment, a way to make a unique presentation that brings together Tibetan monks, their chanting and the contemporary response to what they are singing about. I challenged contemporary composers, including myself, to come up with offerings that investigate the Buddhist philosophy; these composers are either Buddhist themselves or very keen on the subject matter. How does one make a work for the benefit of others, actually? Where is one’s motivation? Is the composer just drawn to the soundscape or to something more?

My piece, ‘Same as I/Cut Through‘ included text taken from verses by Master Shantideva’s ‘A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life‘ and by prayers to Avalokeiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of compassion.  It is a vocal plea to cut through afflictions of body and mind as swiftly as possible to be the maximum help to all beings. Considering the pain and suffering of others as one’s own practice, a tool to develop the enlightened mind, the altruistic intention, bodhicitta. Shantideva says, “the total amount of happiness that exists in the world has come from wanting to make others happy. The total amount of suffering that exists in the world has come from wanting to make yourself happy.”

Voices: Julie Adler, Laura Bohn, Sylvia Desrochers, Gerry Galyean, Marja Liisa Kay, Kris Kennedy, Jessica Tunick, Yulia Zinovieva

and here’s another short clip/collage showing the Drepung Monks in performance.

Click here to view the embedded video.

©2004

Lodged Part II is a music performance piece  for voice and electronics.   The video above is excerpted highlights.  Here, I am accompanied by electronic composer and accompaniest, David Javelosa who manipulates the pre-recorded tracks as well as the live voice, adding another layer of instrumentation to the already layered voices, mine both sung and spoken and pre-recorded.

This peformance was presented at BEYOND MUSIC SOUND FESTIVAL V, curated by Brandon La Belle and also included performances by Pamela Z, Yasunao Tone, and Christof Migone.

Lodged Part II was inspired by the commencement of an investigation into the connections between the classic text, ‘The Inferno’ by Dante and the Buddhist perspective on the Wheel of Life. According to Buddhist doctrine, there are six levels to the desire realm, hell being one of them. Dante’s descriptions of this realm are fascinatingly similar to those from Buddha’s teachings almost 3,000 years ago.   Starting in the Dark Wood of Error, seeing the Mount of Joy in the Distance, what is heard? Where to go? “Follow me and I will be your guide.” Who is saying that? Hell first. Then renunciation.  The retribution for past sins illuminated by the ‘circles of hell’ and perpetual activities on each of Dante’s texts also parallel teachings on laws of cause and effect in the Buddhist doctrine.

‘Lodged’ (in the Bosom of the Spacious Land)’ is meant to create a sonic reaction to these above viewpoints. Through a constructed narrative, illustrated sonically, there are voices – the seeker, the curious one, the naïve one, the suffering one, etc. Ultimately all the voices are ‘lodged’, in other words, deluded. They exist conventionally but can they be recognized for what they truly are?

This is part of a more elaborate long life investigation.

Here also is the audio recording that formed the backbone of this piece.

Full length performance running time: 20 min

©2002

‘Brings fringe to the foreground,’ writes Josef Woodward for the LA Times.  “Producers Julie Adler & Jacki Apple have fashioned an eclectic sonic cavalcade…The festival’s real value is the connective tissue it provides to the region’s cultural fringe dwellers.  It brings the underground into the light.”

“a more than peaceful coexistence of diverse, sympathetic, music makers…and therein likes its charm…”

Click here to view the embedded video.

EARJAM I (2000)

For the very first Earjam, at Side Street LIVE downtown, I performed ‘Frog the Moon‘, a solo accapella vocal piece based on a poem from Anne Sexton’s book of poetry, ‘Transformations’.  This piece is an exploration in visceral kinesthetic and vocal manipulation to express loss, repugnance, hope, fear in the body and in the voice.  This piece was a segue into a series of works threading together journeys both personal and exponential.

EARJAM II (June 2001)

The second Earjam was also presented at Side Street LIVE, downtown LA.  Here, I presented original works with flutist Fawntice McCain.  Along with subverted chant based on a Sanskrit prayer and also a little dittie called ‘In a Field‘, I introduced a new composition of structured vocals and flute, weaving it into ‘Eternal Valley’.  As a codified ‘valley girl’, I wondered about the pebbles of the cosmos, the stepping stones and the ‘furnace’ for us all.

EARJAM III (July 2002)

The third Earjam took place at the Furious Theatre Space in the Armory Northwest in Pasadena.  Here, I accompanied composer David Javelosa and cellist Peter Ludwig on David’s composition,‘Marzimba BBQ’ which is a fluidly arranged structure for voice, cello, harmonica & computer/synthesizer system.  The term ‘Marzimba’ is derived from a ‘marimba from Mars’ with textual imagery derived from summer travels through the barbque belts of America.

EARJAM IV (June 2004)

Earjam IV was presented at REDCAT and because of the scope of this particular production, I donned primarily the producer’s hat but managed to slip into the role of vocalist on composer Becky Allen’s piece, namely, ‘Ocean Wave Swell Heights’.

A collaboration between myself and multi-media artist, Andrew Bucksbarg altered the telephones for this piece.  The desire here was to juxtapose ritual/instrumental actions, vocalization using the everyday common action of the telephone. Julie and Andrew move actions such as picking up the receiver, dialing, talking, and hanging up as well as exploring new possibilities the phones have to offer. How to engage in the preservation of an obsolete tradition?

This was originally presented at Cal Arts but then presented again at The New Experimental Variety Show and Side Street LIVE in Los Angeles

©1999

Silently

both these pieces were used in the performance piece, Philomela, ©1999.

Eternal Valley
flute, Fawntice McCain; drum tracks, David Javelosa

Can’t Make it Out (excerpt)
electronics, David Javelosa

Hollow Men

These various tracks were performed in different configurations of ensemble and/or supporting dance works at Cal State Long Beach, Earjam, Salvation Theatre and other venues around Los Angeles.

VOX
as part of ‘VOX’, a theatrical work by About Productions ©1999

For Heidi (excerpt)

These tracks were composed for specific dance pieces by choreographers Rande Dorn and Heidi Landgraf.

Benwa Etude
This piece was made specifically for the very first CEAIT festival which took place at Cal Arts.  The main instrument used was a Benwa vibrator.