Commissioned for the Tang Museum's "The Second Buddha: Master of Time", the duo of percussionist Susie Ibarra and guitarist Tashi Dorji envision the legendary figure Padmasambhava, who brought Buddhism to Tibet, through two extended improvisations of close communication and tight interaction, including gamelan-like percussion and unusually tuned guitar abstractions.
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Susie Ibarra-drums
Tashi Dorji-guitar
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Label: Astral Spirits
Catalog ID: AS177LP
Squidco Product Code: 32357
Format: LP
Condition: New
Released: 2022
Country: USA
Packaging: LP
Recorded at the Tang Teaching Museum on April 16th-18th, 2019, by Frank Moscowitz.
"Master of Time is a live performance commissioned for the exhibition of Bardo Now, The Second Buddha: Master of Time at the Tang Teaching Museum during a residency on April 16-18, 2019."-Astral Spirits
"In 2019, the Tang Museum at Skidmore College presented The Second Buddha: Master of Time, an exhibition concerning Padmasambhava, the guru credited with bringing Buddhism to Tibet during the eighth century. Along with lectures and exhibits both visual and virtual, the museum commissioned a concert-conceived as a "musical bardo exploration"-by Susie Ibarra, a Philippine American percussionist, and Tashi Dorji, a Bhutan-raised guitarist who's been based in Asheville, North Carolina, since 2000. Buddhism does not figure strongly in the work of either musician, but rhythm does. Following early experiences with Philippine kulintang music and free jazz, Ibarra has used sound art as a means of addressing concerns about cultural and environmental survival and renewal. Dorji came to free improvisation from punk rock, and he's never forsaken his early commitments to social engagement and musical intensity. The bardo is the transitional state between death and rebirth, and on the album of the duo's performance, also called Master of Time, the disparities between the musicians' styles introduce one layer of in-betweenness; the give-and-take of their grooves going in and out of sync with each other provides a second. The LP comprises two side-length excerpts from the concert (the download adds two shorter tracks) that explore the juxtaposition and disruption of rhythms. During "Confluence," Dorji's jagged, distorted tone cleaves Ibarra's rushes of pure sound and rustling textures like the chop of a rusty guillotine blade. "The Way of the Clouds," on the other hand, morphs from a face-off between gradually evolving grooves to an exchange of stark gestures in mostly empty space."-Bill Meyer, Chicago Reader
Get additional information at The Chicago Reader
Artist Biographies
• Show Bio for Susie Ibarra "Susie Ibarra is a Filipina-American composer, percussionist, and sound artist. Her sound has been described as "a sound like no other's, incorporating the unique percussion and musical approach of her Filipino heritage with her flowing jazz drumset style" (Modern Drummer Magazine) and her compositions are sometimes described as "calling up the movements of the human body; elsewhere it's a landscape vanishing in the last light, or the path a waterway might trace" (New York Times). Recent commissions include Kronos String Quartet's 50 for the Future Project Pulsation, PRISM Saxophone Quartet + Percussion's Procession Along the Aciga Tree, Talking Gong trio with pianist Alex Peh and flautist Claire Chase, film score When the Storm Fades directed by Sean Devlin, and a multimedia game piece Fragility: An Exploration of Polyrhythms for Asia Society. Susie Ibarra is a 2019 United States Artist Fellow in Music . She is a Senior TED Fellow and a 2018 Asian Cultural Council Fellow in support of her sound research of An Acoustic Story on Climate Change: Himalayan Glacier Soundscapes. She is recording and researching sound along the Ganges from source to sink in collaboration with glaciologist and geomorphologist Michele Koppes. Ibarra leads the DreamTime Ensemble, which recently released the album Perception, a suite of music exploring memory and shifting sensory experiences. She performs in collaborative ensembles Mephista, Yunohana Variations, and LIMBS. With ThinkFun Games, Ibarra is inventing an interactive polyrhythm game to teach rhythms. Since 2012, she has been a faculty member at Bennington College where she teaches percussion, performance, improvisation, and art intervention. Susie Ibarra is a Yamaha, Vic Firth, and Paiste Drum Artist." ^ Hide Bio for Susie Ibarra • Show Bio for Tashi Dorji "Tashi Dorji grew up in Bhutan, on the eastern side of the Himalayas. Residing in Asheville since 2000 and soaking up a vast array of music. Along the way, Dorji developed a playing style unbound by tradition, yet with a direct line to intuitive artistry. His recordings feature improvisations that spasmodically grow along tangential, surprising paths. All references break loose during a composition, as Dorji keys into his own inner world. His compositions drag the listener into a labyrinth of warbling tones, where each sound seems to jump out and replace the eerie silence that would otherwise occupy the atmosphere. The textures remain sustained in the reverberation as the vibration of the strings dwindle and ascend. The experience is one equally disorienting and reflective, in which Dorji's musicianship brings haunting beauty and mindfulness to the listener. After a handful of releases on various labels since 2009, Dorji presented his debut LP on Hermit Hut, the label created by Ben Chasny (Six Organs of Admittance) in 2014. Since then Tashi has released music in various formats on labels like Bathetic Records, Cabin Floor Esoterica, Blue Tapes, Marmara Records, Feeding Tubes,VDSQ & MIE." ^ Hide Bio for Tashi Dorji
10/2/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
10/2/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
Track Listing:
SIDE A
1. Confluence 19:36
SIDE B
1. The Way of the Clouds 20:16
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