Sound Therapy Projects
Sonic Alchemy, Underwater
Sonic Alchemy, Going Astral
Sonic Alchemy
A multi media Concert/Soundbath
The Waldo Theatre
Waldoboro , Maine, USA
These two concerts in 2005 and 2006 were collaborations with other Artists and The Waldo Theatre.
for years I'd been wanting to hear my gongs in the Waldo, known for being the most acoustically perfect small theater in Maine, and the staff there kindly opened up an invitation.
The first year featured Astral Photography on the big screen, accompanied by myself on Gongs, Whale Drums, Quartz Mirraphone, Chimes; Maleine Gargurevich on gongs, and Forest Weston on Didgeridoo, all creating a very cosmic soundscape.
For the 2006 performance, we brought the whole theater underwater thanks to special lighting by Ryan Fenelon and Timewave Liquid Lights, as well as amazing undersea video from the BBC. We created an underwater soundscape with myself on a similar assortment of instruments as above, along with incredible musicians, Cellist April Reed-Cox, and Multi instrumentelist Lady Kiah. Both of these were dreams come true for me.
I'm very much looking forward to a 2007 show!
Instruments for the Deaf
Many years ago, I was selling my instruments at The Hudson River Revival Festival. A man approached and starting playing on one of my Whale Drums. Very soon his face lit up with a smile as wide as his head. Ends up that the man was completely deaf, but could feel the vibrations emanating off the instrument as well as feeling them coming from the ground to his feet. That experience planted a seed deep inside me.
A bunch of years later, a friend connected me to a woman who runs a weekend camp for the deaf children and their families in western Maine. I offered to bring some of my more visceral instruments for the folks there to experience, and was enthusiastically welcomed. For several years now I, with the help of friends, have been bringing an assortment of visceral instruments I have, from tuning forks up to giant metal tongue drums, and the reception has been quite wonderful!
This year I took my interest in providing "sound" for hearing impaired folks a bit further and made an instrument, modeled off of my original Yellow Submarine, specifically for the playground at the Baxter School for the Deaf. Played from the inside, the vibrations can very much be felt in the air as well as from the tank itself.
