Morning Chorus

This is an electronic composition by H.G. Lewis. Performances by Botany Pond. Photo from the cover of "Bubbles: from the Brunnen of Nassu, by an Old Man", seventh edition, by John Murray.

Salt Dreams

Composition by H.G. Lewis. Performance by Botany Pond. Woodcut by H.G. Lewis.

SCORE:
Collectively determine a pitch such that it and the
note two octaves above it can be played by all of the
performers. If this is not possible, choose a conve-
nient pitch class instead.
You may rest at the beginning of the piece as long
as you wish, but it is best if you begin before 3/4 of
the players have reached the middle octave.
Play the chosen pitch. When you are ready, be-
gin a glissando up two octaves. Non-sustaining in-
struments may choose to rearticulate continuously
as in a roll or a tremolo, or they may re-articulate
every time that their instrument fades enough that
it cannot be heard in the ensemble. These musicians
may vary the speed of re-articulation throughout the
piece. Vocalists may sing on any neutral syllable.
If at any point in the piece you notice that your
glissando is falling near another performer’s, adjust
your speed to fall behind theirs, match theirs, or cut
in front of theirs.
When you arrive at the pitch two octaves above
the starting pitch hold this note until all performers
have arrived, or begin the glissando again. When all
performers are sustaining this final pitch, decrescendo
slowly into silence.

Glissando

This is not a piece by Botany Pond. This is a performance of Mwata Bowden's "Four Leaf Clover" performed by the Jazz-Xtet. It just so happens that half of botany pond is also in the X-tet. So here's a solo performed by Dee Alexander on vocals and H.G. Lewis on steel pan.

Excerpt from "Four Leaf Clover"

Two poems by Langston Hughes set to music. Commissioned by the Smart Museum.

Performed by Ari Freedman on Bass; Ben Oye on recorders, melodica, and percussion; Harlan G. Lewis on re-tempered harmonium (1/4 comma meantone), and percussion.

Dream Variations

Bongo Congo Organ

I was on my way to work in the early spring of 2020 when I came across a fallen birds nest. I was horrified to find it during fledgling season, but the mother and chicks were nowhere to be found---maybe it was just an old nest. On the way back home that evening I checked on the nest again. It sat there in the grass between two buildings just as it had done before. Not in a hurry this time, I noticed that the nest was made out of straw, mud, and cassette tape. Overjoyed by this I went home and got my camera, but it was hard to get a photo that made the nest look like anything but a pile of trash. I went home a little disappointed. 

When I woke up the next morning I new exactly what I needed to do. I ran out and got the nest. I brought it home and wearing a mask and gloves and tried to tease the strands of cassette tape out of the tangle of straw and mud. It was very well constructed and in the end I had to destroy the whole nest to get the tape out, glued as it was into the mass.

The tape was caked with mud and debris, so I washed each strand by putting them under running water and then squeegeeing off the softened earth detritus between two gloved fingers. After completing a strand I would hang them on a brass hook to dry.

After all the strands had been washed to my liking, I repeated the process of saturating and squeegeeing with grain alcohol.

I Found a cassette tape held together with screws "Forever Young" which I had no interest in ever listening to and opened it up for its parts. Leaving the clear leader tape, I removed the ferric tape from the spools so that I could easily splice the new tape into the cassette. I realized at this point that I could have done all of this without first opening the cassette.

I laid the the tape strands of tape out on the floor and began to tape them together onto the left spool. I wound then wind it manually onto the tape spool which for the longer sections took quite some time. The tape was in such poor condition that it was sometimes hard to tell which side was up or down. You can hear this in the finished mixtape, where sometimes the recording sounds strange and muddy.

After spooling on all the tape, I loaded it all back into the cassette and sealed it up. Trembling with joy I put it into my deck and hit play. The sound was not what I expected.

Mixtape of the Birds

No Other Cigarette

Meadowlarke (Formerly known as the Meadowlark Consort) is a duo of Ben Oye and Eden Attar. We combine early music (madrigals, period instruments, modal counterpoint) and new music (turntables, modular synthesis, dance music) to create pieces which grow legs, dance, and sweat, resulting in new forms of performer-audience relationship.

Botany pond is a loose band of improvisors based in Hyde Park, Chicago. Lead by Eden Attar and Jonathan Gardner. We believe in the spontaneous and ecstatic.