ID Music: Collision Mandalas
ID Music: Collision Mandalas
North America's Gnarliest Mix of the finest birdsongs
Inter-Dimensional Music is heard weekly on the actual airwaves of Marfa Public Radio, LOOKOUT FM Los Angeles, and WQRT Indianapolis. Scroll down for setlists and broadcast times.
Strange and wonderful live music experiences were a regular occurrence living in Marfa, Texas:
• Tyler’s Comanche-inspired corpse paint paired with LBS.’ homegrown sludge metal
• Impromptu acoustic guitar sets from Ross Cashiola1
• All of Lost Horse singing along with SPIC’s absolutely maniacal Billy Joel cover
• URB Magazine Next 100 alumnus DJ Jester the Filipino Fist unexpectedly DJing both the first and last Marfa parties that I attended
• That party in Hilary’s yard where Chris was blasting a YouTube rip of Sonic Temple
• Watching crying children run out of Padre’s double-fisting sausages when the bar somehow booked Ash Borer for “two-for-one hot dog night”
… are just a few of the lesser known highlights from my time there. Bitchin Bajas 2016 performance at Ballroom Marfa – where I worked at the time – was another low-key legendary night on the high desert grasslands.
My friend Jon C. (aka VJ Mellow Arms) opened for the trio with a mix of mesmerizing vintage live footage of Can and Elvis. He then provided kaleidoscopic mandala projections as a backdrop for Cooper Crain, Dan Quinlivan and Rob Frye, turning their heavenly performance into something bioluminescent.
Afterward, my friend and Ballroom comrade Sarah Melendez and I ended up hanging out with the dudes back at the house where they were staying. This party after the after-party took an unexpected turn sometime in the early morning hours when the two of us sat in with the Bajas for an acoustic drum circle using the pottery that decorated the (very very nice) house. Pottery that we did not realize was actually e x t r e m e l y expensive ceramic art. Musicians such as these are careful with their instruments, and no harm came to these delicate, resonant works. Such is life as a mindful dirtbag in a remote high desert artist colony.
I kept in touch after leaving Marfa, mostly just saying “hey it’s me the pottery jammer” when Rachel and I saw Bitchin Bajas at a show in Bloomington. Rob was also kind enough to offer up a flute jam to one of my pandemic-era happy birthday webinars.
Rob’s also an ornithologist, and his Chihuahuan Desert Birdscapes album was produced as part of a Ballroom Marfa residency. I got serious about my practice as a visual artist while I was living in Far West Texas, finding both solace and inspiration in the same eco-region. And so I was deeply stoked for the opportunity to collaborate with him on a Midwestern installment in his ornithologically-inclined work with Glass Canyon Ensemble.
I wrote about the two Collision Mandala videos that I created for “EeOhLay” and “Zugunruhe” in previous posts. I’ll say again that my conversations with Rob and Satya – whose poetry and voice are heard throughout the album – were deeply inspiring. Ideas about ecology, collaboration, and aesthetic appropriation of spiritual practices that have changed the way that I think about my own work, and that have opened up new possibilities for making things in harmony with others2.
If you’ve purchased Collision Theory I’d be delighted to send you copies of the videos, which are also streaming for free in my Vimeo portfolio. Hit me up here or directly at cosmic.chambo@gmail.com.
This episode of Inter-Dimensional Music is a tribute to some of these concepts, but it’s mostly a laid-back mix of songs about and/or performed by actual birds. There’s also some overlap with the soundtrack to my Dead Bird Blues “mindfulness installation” which takes its name from the August Born song.
20220225 PROGRAM NOTES
North America's Gnarliest Mix for guarding ourselves from straying into false heavens
This week we'll be listening to bird songs, songs about birds, language about false heavens, and other sounds related to Collision Theory, a project from Glass Canyon Ensemble. The mix includes selections from the Ensemble as well as work from various Ensemble member projects. Highlights include Frye’s cyclical rhythm project Flux Bikes, a blend of field recordings, electronics, and poetry from satya’s desirepath; and an extremely satisfying blend of Equinoxx, Actress, and Kid606.
Language throughout the broadcast from Frye's Collision Theory liner notes. The video flyer accompanying today’s program is a remix of the Collision Mandala videos.
artist - work
Ken-Ichiro Isoda - 水車小屋について (edit)
Glass Canyon Ensemble - EeOhLay
Bitchin Bajas - Tilang (edit)
Satya - The Ashy Prinia
Bitchin Bajas - Tilang (edit)
Satya Kinkar Bandyopadhyaha - Raga Malkauns
Flux Bikes - Sueñolas
Ras Michael - Birds in the Tree Tops
Actress - Bird Matrix (Kid606 Dub Remix)
Equinoxx - Timebird
Four Tet - Teenage Birdsong
Rob Frye - Chihuahuan Desert Birdscapes
Ben Lamar Gay - Slightly Before the Dawn
Glass Canyon Ensemble - Zugunruhe
Ken-Ichiro Isoda - 水車小屋について (edit)
BONUS TRACK!
Flux Bikes (aka Rob Frye) presents a guest vinyl mix for Chando Radio on WLPN-LP Chicago 105.5 FM.
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One of the only persons on Earth who picks up a guitar at a party and I settle in instead of ghosting. I love you, Ross!
It was also totally rad that drummer Nick Alvarez caught the cymbal-hit/unfurling synchronicity at 01:38 that I was so proud of in the “Zugunruhe” video.