These two pieces of music were organized for what would have been the world premier of BIRFTH ensemble in my Senior Degree Recital. The event was originally planned for a multimedia presentation in Fairchild Chapel on April 29th, 2020, my birthday. However, COVID-19 rendered the site-specific performance impossible. Instead, Gusty, part II of the BIRFTH Collection, was published to raise bail and post-release funds for protestors arrested in BLM protests in Summer 2020. The album raised over $5,000 for National Bailout Collective and COVID Bailout NYC
The story of BIRFTH, is the story of unforseen endings. In the fall of 2019 and Spring of 2020, I was working closely with forgotten pieces of victorian instrustructure that I had pulled from the mud around Oberlin College.
I saw my graduation from Oberlin as a similar psychological and ritualistic process. I was impressed upon by a magical place. It was time for me to emerge from this magical wombspace, clear the mud of my energies, and move forward into time. I was never able to complete this ritual, but I believe that the sounds captured in these rehearsals are medicinal. As the second child in a conservative family of six children, my time at Oberlin brought so much freedom unto my daily life. These recordings connect me to an emotional space of loss and gratitude for this freedom brought on by the spiritual realm of Oberlin. In the two jam-sessions that I hosted in the chapel prior to COVID-19, I was ex
perimenting with sounds and harmonies that could be lived in and percieved through the skin. I wanted the piece to be felt in addition to being heard. In Gusty, instrumentalists were instructed to create a hocket-like texture. Within this texture, instrumentalists were invited to de-tune and re-attune to one another across the improvisation. In Musty, instrumentalists were invited to meditate on the sensation of phantom-beats made by two pitches played only a few cents apart. These works were experiments performed by a loving community of talented artists for which I am eternally grateful! May we find eachother once again. Birf’th be!
Recording/Fife/Voice/Accordion : Katarina Mazur
Marlena Gonzalez : Cello
Tigran Bunyatian : Organ
Caleb Rose : Clarinet
Clayton Luckadoo : Clarinet
Owen Frankel : Double Bass
Liam Hastings : Double Bass
