THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING

Using the tradition of classical Western alchemy as a methodology, I have been working to create a score for The Cloud of Unknowing, a 14th-century treatise on the impossibility of accessing God through the rational mind and the importance of contemplation. Versions of this work have been presented publicly, including at the Forecast Festival in Berlin under the mentorship of Heinali.

While these works result in sound, the physical components and processes that lead to these sounds are at least as important as the sounds themselves. Primarily using vocalizations and hurdy-gurdy technologies, the sounds cannot be predicted until the works are fully assembled. New inventions, rediscovered construction techniques, and impromptu collaborative rituals slough off the process. This practice of composition and instrument construction is a lived expression of the alchemical notion that access to spirit can only happen through the transformation of matter.

I consider my work and myself a process of living alchemy, where movement is the default state, and stillness is recognized as something cultivated. I attempt to utilize ritual technology to hold both stillness and change within a container of sound.