instructions for sonic imagination and strength inspired by Yoko Ono’s Grapefruit

Titles are instructions:

1. open a door to the horizon . . .
2. tiptoe with the birds . . .
3. find yourself humming . . .
4. honor peaceful time between the trees . . .
5. draw circles with your torso . . .
6. round the bend around . . .
7. open a door to the horizon . . .

Artist Notes:

Where are you now?
I am probably sitting.

If not, then perhaps I am picking pomelo.
Did your face light up?
Are you picking pomelo too?

Pomelo are the largest citrus.
Imagine a supersized grapefruit.

Yoko Ono published a book called Grapefruit in 1964.
Each page is an instruction I find useful when I’m lost.
I look here to dream with a grounded absurdity:

“Imagine the clouds dripping.
Dig a hole in your garden to put them in.”

Grapefruit offers ways to liberate stuck minds.
Picking pomelo gets me out of a chair to reach into a tree.
Pomelo are citrus maxima, yet look small amidst the branches.

Similarly, the instructions are short and all-encompassing.
Likewise, these audio miniatures are brief and expansive.

I encourage you to get out of your chair.
Go where clouds float above.
And dance all around.

Epilogue:

Grapefruit inspired Yoko Ono’s husband, John Lennon, yet he omitted her conceptual and lyric contributions. In 2017, after nearly 50 years, Ono finally received credit on the song “Imagine.” 

Where do you find yourself during the dual pandemics of COVID-19 and systemic inequities?

Every morning, even the tiniest birds chirp. Their songs are bright and intricate. I imagine them telling the world to celebrate or mourn. These sounds are a reminder and a warning.

This work was commissioned by the Henry Art Gallery and Jack Straw Cultural Center for their sound works series Sonolocations, curated by Shamim M. Momin, Director of Curatorial Affairs, Henry Art Gallery; and Levi Fuller, Administrative Coordinator, and Joan Rabinowitz, Executive Director, Jack Straw Cultural Center. The exhibition is presented in conjunction with Murmurations, a Seattle-wide arts collaboration featuring a series of exhibitions, performances, screenings, community conversations, artist talks, and other programs co-developed between cultural organizations.

Sonolocations 1: Pomelo

Byron Au Yong: Pomelo

Full artist notes at https://henryart.org/exhibitions/sonolocations-a-sound-works-series

1. Waves on the Salish Sea (0:00-0:47)
Water is Life. Journeying to the mountaintops through rain, snow, glaciers, and snowpack; into the rivers, streams, and creeks; seeping deep underground into aquifers and springs; out to the great oceans, and back up into the atmosphere again - clean, pure water generously nourishes all life. Without water there would be no life on our planet. All life is born from, or with, water, and thus Water is Life - a divine and living spirit that carries wisdom, memory, stories, and teachings. These wave sounds lapping upon the shore were recorded on the Salish Sea during an incoming tide. 

2. Ducks Feeding on the Mud Flats at Low Tide (with Fighter Jet) (0:47-2:40)
As the tide goes out the mud flats become a feeding ground for ducks, dunlin, and other waterfowl. The loud booming noise comes from a fighter pilot flying circles over the valley. Beneath the sound of the fighter jet you can hear the sweet, innocent, and crisp sounds of ducks feeding, and song - a prayer - for the continuation of all of the Earth's sacred creatures.

3. Songbirds in the Wetlands (2:40-4:10)
There are many species of song birds in the wetlands of Skagit Valley. The main song here is the beautiful sound of the Song Sparrow. On occasion, you can hear a duck or two quacking in the background! 
Every creature plays an important and vital role in maintaining a healthy biodiversity in their respective habitats. Songbirds’ numbers across North America have been diminishing greatly over the last several decades due to habitat loss from industrial agriculture and the increased use of pesticides. 

4. Frogs in the Wetlands (4:10-6:59)
The individual mating calls and the chorus of Pacific Green Tree Frogs heard here signify the coming of Spring in the Skagit Valley and the promise of new growth and new life. The survival of frogs of all species worldwide are threatened. One of the main threats to frogs today is also loss of habitat. There are, of course, numerous other factors. 

5. Snow Geese (aka, Lesser Snow Geese) Bathing in a Pond (6:59-9:46)
I visit the snow geese several times each winter, but this was the first time I saw and heard the sound of hundreds of snow geese bathing. On this track you are hearing the sound of their powerful wings beating in the water as they bathe themselves, and their enthusiastic honking! 

6. Bald Eagles and Wind (9:46-11:29)
Part 1: I have visited this eagle couple many times over the years. Eagles mate for life. Each year I see them repair and fortify their nest for their next offspring. This eagle couple lives in the Skagit Valley year around. As many times as I’ve visited these two eagles, this was the first time I listened closely to their communication with one another as they worked on their nest together. You can also hear the strong winds blowing. 
Part 2: Four Bald Eagles preparing for the hunt near a huge flock of grazing snow geese in the late afternoon.

7. Snow Geese at Sunset (11:29-14:30)
The sound of waves enter, as the Water of Life carries the listener to the final locale where thousands of snow geese are feeding in the fields, and on high alert, as the eagles are close. At the end of the track all of the snow geese take off in an uproarious wave when an eagle swoops in on attack. Their wings are beating powerfully in unison, causing a huge wind to whip through the atmosphere as they become airborne.

Recorded in the Skagit Valley and at the studios of Jack Straw Cultural Center. Many thanks to The Henry Art Gallery and Jack Straw Cultural Center for inviting me to be a part of Sonolocations: A Sound Works Series. Thank you to Camelia Jade, my "Sound Engineer Wizard" and dear friend for recording, mixing and mastering.

Sonolocations: A Sound Works Series

Chenoa Egawa: Enduring Rhythms: Seven Songs from the Skagit Valley

Amelia Coulter is an alto trombonist and experimental sound artist. She enjoys discovering new, messy, and uncomfortable embodiments for the trombone using alternative techniques, modifications, and integration with analog electronics. She has a bachelor of music from Cornish College of the Arts. https://liia.bandcamp.com/

She would like to acknowledge that these sounds were produced on the unceded traditional land of the first people of Seattle, the Duwamish People past and present, and to honor with gratitude the land itself and the Duwamish Tribe.

This recording is a live solo improvisation for alto trombone amplified via mixing board with two channels of feedback. Inspired by the dueling feedback loops of anxiety and depression, the goal is to embrace the closed loop system by plugging outputs back into inputs to become something more powerful.

Wayward in Limbo #92 – Amelia Coulter

Each month, Nonsequitur and a community of like-minded organizations and artists present ten concerts of adventurous and experimental music in the Chapel Performance Space at the Good Shepherd Center in Seattle: contemporary/post-classical composition, free improvisation and the outer limits of jazz, electronic/electroacoustic music, new instruments, phonography, sound art, and other innovative musics.

With the Chapel closed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wayward Series moves from the concert hall to the living room. In place of our usual ten monthly concerts, Nonsequitur is commissioning ten Seattle artists each month to create a series of streaming audio sessions of previously unreleased material.

Wayward in Limbo #92 – Amelia Coulter

Wayward Music Series

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