12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 233
Date: 08/21/2013
Instrument: Soprano saxophone
Location: Beside a tributary while hiking out of the Necklace Valley. North Cascade range in WA state.
From August 18th-21st I hiked into the Necklace Valley with my friend and fellow musician Cameron Peace. In total, we covered approximately 30 miles of very strenuous backpacking, including well established hiking trails, game trails, rock scrambling, and short crossings over alpine glaciers. The three recordings from August 19th-21st detailed my experiences in some of the locations we visited.
Day 3: August 21st. Hiking out of the valley
Notes:
On the 9 mile march out of Necklace Valley, we stopped alongside a tributary to rest and eat some food. The tributary itself flows into the East Foss River. The raging river below us created a thicket of sound that inspired me, despite being very tired, to pull out my horn and improvise along side it.
During this improvisation I wanted to capture both the persistent drone of the river, but also the individual punctuations of sound that occur within it. During this piece I would stare at a boulder, old log or waterfall and try to hone in on the sound in that small bit of this river environment. This was reflected in my improvisation, in that I would use tiny recurring melodies, and try to incorporate the drone of the river and my own “drone” within them. My drone in this piece was firing up a deluge of sound in my horn, including high whistle tones and clusters of undulating sounds.
-Neil
The image accompanying today’s post a tributary flowing into the East Foss River.