Original photographic images by Julie Johnson
Saxophone by Noah Hampson
Other music, sounds & audio/visual editing by Marianthe Loucataris
Saxophone by Noah Hampson
Other music, sounds & audio/visual editing by Marianthe Loucataris
about the process
Julie Johnson and I have cultivated a relationship within which we invite the other-than-human into our conversation using multi modal means. We got to know each other and each other's landscapes in the midst of the wonderful course/festivals with Bayo Akomolafe's We Will Dance With Mountains. Since then we have continued to communicate, we are part of a culture of people who share not only what's happening in their hearts, minds and energetic selves but also what is happening in their landscapes through digital media.
I had loved Julie's images for a number of years and when she showed interest in collaborating for the What are we? project I was stoked. We began having conversations about the snow. As we spoke and shared images and sounds her stories about the process of capturing the images and the collection of exquisite photographs, began to inhabit my being. A visceral sense of being made up of the soft blue shapes. She spoke of how her sensitivity to light which often caused trouble and discomfort was soothed by the colour and form of the blue snow shadows. We spoke of how the snow called to her, with certain forms asking to be captured. We spoke of how the camera, the snow, the computer, the internet became involved in a animistic poly amorous cross species rom com. Her eyes and the camera and the snow becoming infused with desire for each other and then me and my friend Noah's instruments joining in the orgiastic animistic more-than-human romance. In January 2023 we were part of a small online event for the Brave New Works festival. The soft blue images had been edited into a film and Noah Hampson and I improvised live over the images with frame drum and saxophone. The next morning we recorded an improvisation while watching the gorgeous images. Over the ensuing months I spent time improvising and composing more sounds over the original recording and edited it all together into the piece above.
Improvising with the-other-than-human can be a sensuous loving way of sharing care between humans, their landscapes, instrumental friends and the technologies we ally ourselves with to build trans-local creative connections across the globe.
Marianthe
Julie Johnson and I have cultivated a relationship within which we invite the other-than-human into our conversation using multi modal means. We got to know each other and each other's landscapes in the midst of the wonderful course/festivals with Bayo Akomolafe's We Will Dance With Mountains. Since then we have continued to communicate, we are part of a culture of people who share not only what's happening in their hearts, minds and energetic selves but also what is happening in their landscapes through digital media.
I had loved Julie's images for a number of years and when she showed interest in collaborating for the What are we? project I was stoked. We began having conversations about the snow. As we spoke and shared images and sounds her stories about the process of capturing the images and the collection of exquisite photographs, began to inhabit my being. A visceral sense of being made up of the soft blue shapes. She spoke of how her sensitivity to light which often caused trouble and discomfort was soothed by the colour and form of the blue snow shadows. We spoke of how the snow called to her, with certain forms asking to be captured. We spoke of how the camera, the snow, the computer, the internet became involved in a animistic poly amorous cross species rom com. Her eyes and the camera and the snow becoming infused with desire for each other and then me and my friend Noah's instruments joining in the orgiastic animistic more-than-human romance. In January 2023 we were part of a small online event for the Brave New Works festival. The soft blue images had been edited into a film and Noah Hampson and I improvised live over the images with frame drum and saxophone. The next morning we recorded an improvisation while watching the gorgeous images. Over the ensuing months I spent time improvising and composing more sounds over the original recording and edited it all together into the piece above.
Improvising with the-other-than-human can be a sensuous loving way of sharing care between humans, their landscapes, instrumental friends and the technologies we ally ourselves with to build trans-local creative connections across the globe.
Marianthe
[3:26 am, 28/05/2023] Julie Johnson: Hello! Thank you and yes I’d love to work on it together!
Also I forgot that I wrote a rhyming poem (!) awhile back about it, which you can use or not or take bits from as you wish, I wrote it to elaborate on the ‘romantic’ aspects between blue shadow meeting the music.
[3:26 am, 28/05/2023] Julie Johnson: Here’s the poem
[3:28 am, 28/05/2023] Julie Johnson:
Also I forgot that I wrote a rhyming poem (!) awhile back about it, which you can use or not or take bits from as you wish, I wrote it to elaborate on the ‘romantic’ aspects between blue shadow meeting the music.
[3:26 am, 28/05/2023] Julie Johnson: Here’s the poem
[3:28 am, 28/05/2023] Julie Johnson:
Soft Blue Musical Dashes
by Julie Johnson
When the snow lays thick
And the sun comes out
The bare branches quiver,
The Cedar boughs shout,
The snow banks rumble
And almost topple over,
The prickly burrs shiver
The bare stems fall closer,
Because the sunshine ensures
the snow becomes golden,
Except where ‘they’ are
Then the blue shadows become swollen
Which means they can paint
They can draw, they can dance
They can outline in deep blue
All their dreams, their romance…
For there is yearning in shadow
And this longing sustains,
And burning and yearning,
Their blue shadows sway…
Towards any tendril reaching out
With a vibration, a bliss
The blue shadows stretch outwards,
Hoping one day to kiss…
That which wants to kiss back!
And then it happened one day,
it is a such a surprise,
That reaching through veins, portals and lenses
Brings forth a reprise…
Of a love long ago lost,
So long gone and forgotten
But! here comes these sounds
Seeking touch and to soften,
The blue shadows stretch out,
And now blurred and dissolved,
The warm sounds gather in closer,
Musical sweetness gets involved!
Now they mingle and swirl,
in vast earthly flashes,
So go press ‘play’ to merge in,
With these blue shadow-musical-dashes…
by Julie Johnson
When the snow lays thick
And the sun comes out
The bare branches quiver,
The Cedar boughs shout,
The snow banks rumble
And almost topple over,
The prickly burrs shiver
The bare stems fall closer,
Because the sunshine ensures
the snow becomes golden,
Except where ‘they’ are
Then the blue shadows become swollen
Which means they can paint
They can draw, they can dance
They can outline in deep blue
All their dreams, their romance…
For there is yearning in shadow
And this longing sustains,
And burning and yearning,
Their blue shadows sway…
Towards any tendril reaching out
With a vibration, a bliss
The blue shadows stretch outwards,
Hoping one day to kiss…
That which wants to kiss back!
And then it happened one day,
it is a such a surprise,
That reaching through veins, portals and lenses
Brings forth a reprise…
Of a love long ago lost,
So long gone and forgotten
But! here comes these sounds
Seeking touch and to soften,
The blue shadows stretch out,
And now blurred and dissolved,
The warm sounds gather in closer,
Musical sweetness gets involved!
Now they mingle and swirl,
in vast earthly flashes,
So go press ‘play’ to merge in,
With these blue shadow-musical-dashes…