12.21.2020 The Grand Conjunction - Winter Solstice Live Stream Part 1

Sketches from composing A Symphony for the Living:<br/><br/>The Method:<br/><br/>By last March, suddenly, along with everyone else, we&#8217;d entered a new world. Uncertainty, fear and disruption permeated the air. We made a decision to create a record of the time, our acoustic journal of the experience. We committed to a slowly unfolding process: Broadcasting and recording our collaborative music writing over time, not rushing to complete anything, just following where it takes us. We have enjoyed and appreciate our kith and kin who have joined us on the journey, and who have sent their reflections on participating with our real time "living field experiments." We've discovered that we listen differently when we know others are listening with us.<br/><br/>In November, we pulled the tracks from the sessions we&#8217;ve recorded over the past nine months, the ones where we feel the most life stirring in the depths, and listened to hear where they were sending us. At this stage it&#8217;s not so much the notes that are there &#8211; some of them will fall away by the time it&#8217;s a whole piece &#8211; it&#8217;s the notes we can hear that aren&#8217;t there yet. They come and go, some with certainty and force, some whispy and elusive.<br/><br/>The next stage is to play with them, to find the notes that will come through our fingers and want to stay. To hear a piece of music coming to life that wasn&#8217;t there before&#8230; It&#8217;s a peculiar kind of joy. We hear the symphonic voices, but we are only two, honing in on one line, one at a time. We then record another layer to the track. (Don&#8217;t overthink, just play with it once and let go!)<br/><br/>It&#8217;s taken on a life of it&#8217;s own. We&#8217;ve gathered the tracks that are telling us a story about ourselves and our journey, and woven in some long pauses for more to enter in between. This is how our writing process goes. It is our work and our prayer, a practice in co-creating a more beautiful future out of the prese