Lodged Part II (2002) is a music performance piece for voice and electronics. The video above is excerpted highlights. (Full length performance running time: 20 min) 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 at Beyond Baroque, Venice, CA, 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:
Lodged Part II