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Sono Luminus

Escape Rites

$16.99

Details

Composer
John Cage, Austin Wulliman
Artist
JACK Quartet
Format
CD
Label
Sono Luminus
Released
May 09, 2025
Catalog #
SLE-70037
UPC
053479703705

About

Pressed between bodies heaving to the pulse. The room inside the drum: each of us within it's envelope. Sent elsewhere. Stamped to distant locales but together in this resonating box. My wrists were broken. My mind screwed on tight. I wake next to a reflecting pool. An inlet. The water here is cool, shaded by trees that lean in to listen, swaying lightly with the gentle breeze, the hairs on my neck alive. I start my own religion here. But I ask of the sea: long to see it's waves crashing. As I approach, the blue-green colors of my oasis dull to a metallic blur. The wind a knife's edge into my bleared eyes. From below the surface, shafts of artificial light emerge. Power indicators of unseen machines from another time, rising endlessly... narrow spotlights pushing into the sky. My heart quickens. These climbing pixels build a hard-edged latticework of digital snow, blinding me. I try to tune it. I look for the one of one. No wiser, I exhale and step into a clearing among the trees: an orderly garden path. I pace slowly among the carefully selected native plants... am I yet awake? Each turn reveals that these rows lead into a deep forest. The roots intertwine with a soil rich in jumbled wiring, broken monitors, cables to outdated devices. The path opens suddenly onto an outcropping above the sea. From this new vantage, each square of color in the water pollutes it's surface with 8-bit splendor. I spin back into the forest, the roots and limbs now formed of telephone cords, drive thru bank tubes, and strings of LED lights. They whirl me into a dance: a rite of doubt and self-abdication. Awakening from the depths of this wood: a giant stone head. Looming. Impassive. It's face in a half-smile of cool knowing. It's surface like a freshly cut tree trunk, brindled with geological age and the scars of it's removal from the earth. I am lifted up and held against it: a familiar texture, it's rough beard streaked with aquamarine moss. A deep calm comes over me: of the kind one feels when giving in to the weight of a midday slumber or a powerful drug. A kept beast that loves it's strict, heavy-handed trainer. Below this effigy, an entry to the junkyard earth. I walk myself dutifully down the mossy stairs to my resting place, each step echoing with a memory of an imagined golden age. "Activity involving in a single process the many, turning them, even though some seem to be opposites, towards oneness, contributes to a good way of life." - John Cage

Tracklist 7 tracks

  1. 1 The Late Edition 07:59
    Track
    1
    Title
    The Late Edition
    Duration
    07:59
    Composer
    Austin Wulliman
    Ensemble
    JACK Quartet
  2. 2 Lost One 10:01
    Track
    2
    Title
    Lost One
    Duration
    10:01
    Composer
    Austin Wulliman
    Ensemble
    JACK Quartet
  3. 3 Escape Rites 22:23
    Track
    3
    Title
    Escape Rites
    Duration
    22:23
    Composer
    Austin Wulliman
    Ensemble
    JACK Quartet
  4. 4 I. SYSTEM NOTES 06:01
    Track
    4
    Title
    I. SYSTEM NOTES
    Duration
    06:01
    Composer
    Austin Wulliman
    Ensemble
    JACK Quartet
  5. 5 II. como se vive (ii) 03:40
    Track
    5
    Title
    II. como se vive (ii)
    Duration
    03:40
    Composer
    Austin Wulliman
    Ensemble
    JACK Quartet
  6. 6 III. Live News 06:57
    Track
    6
    Title
    III. Live News
    Duration
    06:57
    Composer
    Austin Wulliman
    Ensemble
    JACK Quartet
  7. 7 Totem Ancestor (arr. A. Wulliman for string quartet) 02:10
    Track
    7
    Title
    Totem Ancestor (arr. A. Wulliman for string quartet)
    Duration
    02:10
    Composer
    John Cage
    Ensemble
    JACK Quartet