half full (1999)
original score for Carol McDowell's piece by the same name
after spending some time in the very high Rockies of northern Colorado at the dharma center i had amassed some wild sounds using a poorly functioning PZM microphone and portable 4 track (tascam portaone): attempts at recording the wind (which worked all too well - gusting into the mic element got a very strong signal), as well as goofing around inside of an empty vinyl tent that spanned 100' by 40'. i wanted to use these noise elements in conjunction with musical and rhythmic elements as well as spoken text, in order to find connecting points between my interests in noise, world music, poetry, and alleatoric systems.
i sent it off with Carol on her first tour of Indonesia where she choreographed a solo dance to it, adding some sounds and spoken text of her own. we rewrote it when she returned, and i find it is a great piece in the balance of the live sound and the recorded, the noisy and the pretty, i having my position of authority and she hers. she dances like a tantric shelanagig.