Why Solstice
Why Solstice?
There is something awe inspiring about experiencing The TANK, everyone agrees.
The sounds you make rise around you like a constellation into the heavens, towards the stars, towards the sun.
Its an ultra-cathedral spiritual lift, but in this accidental industrial landscape there are no crosses, tablets, icons.
You are on your own with your spirit and your sound.
The TANK, at 65 feet tall, casts a long shadow on the desert landscape. From morning to night in the hot desert sun, we find ourselves inhabiting its shadow as it swings from west to north to east. The tank is a giant sundial, orienting us to the movement of the earth, the seasons, our relation to the cosmos.
So we decided early on to also orient our schedule of activities to the sun. Record in the morning and evenings when it’s not too hot inside. Enjoy the best reverb in the evenings when the half-inch steel cools down into stillness. And the most significant, celebration of the year that aligns us to the cosmos is Solstice. Chaco Canyon, home of ancient astronomers chose Winter Solstice to align their far flung tribes (including the people who made all the Rock Art near Rangely). We choose Summer Solstice, the year’s longest day, a time of gatherings, festivals, and togetherness.
* On our first Summer Solstice dawn sing, when the sun appeared through the portal as a beam pointing straight at the center point of the TANK. Confirmation? Accident? who knows. . . . . . . .;
This Year’s Celebration
Beth Custer
Bay Area music scene giant Beth Custer brought her clarinets, along with her voice, percussion and toys. Beth is a founding member of the notorious silent film soundtrack purveyors the Club Foot Orchestra, the Fourth World ambient ensemble Trance Mission, the trip-hop duo Eighty Mile Beach, and the Latin-jazz-rock influenced Doña Luz 30 Besos. She also leads the quartet of esteemed jazz clarinetists called Clarinet Thing and The Beth Custer Ensemble.
Ben Neill
Composer/performer Ben Neill is the inventor of the Mutantrumpet, a hybrid electro-acoustic instrument. He has recorded eleven albums and performed at the BAM Next Wave Festival, Big Ears Festival, Lincoln Center, Whitney Museum of American Art, Bing Concert Hall at Stanford, Getty Museum, Cite de la Musique Paris, Moogfest, Spoleto Festival, Umbria Jazz, Bang On A Can Festival, ICA London, Istanbul Jazz Festival, Vienna Jazz Festival, and the Edinburgh Festival.
Sound Circle
Based in Boulder, Colorado, the women of Sound Circle, an 18-voice a cappella women’s vocal ensemble, have come together to experience the deep joy of making music and to share that joy with audiences. Sound Circle has commissioned many new works, performed original music by members of the ensemble, and created many new arrangements.