Various artists
Elegua Records — ele 005
Limited, numbered edition of 500 CDs
Jewel case with rearrangeable transparent sleeves
For thirteen years at the time of its release, the Subtropics Festival had presented experimental music and sound art in Miami. Subtropics Vol. 1: Breath brought together recordings selected from that history around a shared physical source: sounds generated by breath.
The album was conceived as the first in a series drawn from the festival’s recording archive. Although it remains the only volume produced to date, it documents performances extending from Subtropics 3 in 1991 through Subtropics 12 in 2000.
The CD was produced as a fundraiser for the South Florida Composers Alliance, now Subtropics Organization.
EDITION AND PRODUCTION
Each of the 500 copies was individually numbered. The jewel case contained loose printed transparencies that could be rearranged, allowing the layers of the package design to be assembled in different combinations.
Curated by Gustavo Matamoros
Editing and mastering by Gustavo Matamoros
Graphics and packaging by David Font
Produced by Subtropics Organization at SFCA’s Sound Arts Workshop
Released in collaboration with Elegua Records
TRACKS
- Robert Dick — Molecular Motion
- Earle Brown — December 1952
- Jon Gibson — Stalling Into Elation
- Needle and Sony_Mao — Samantha Fox Interview (Algedonic Loop)
- Gustavo Matamoros and Robert Gregory — Crypsis
- Alvin Lucier — Music for Baritone and Slow Sweep Pure Wave Oscillators
Thomas Buckner, baritone - John Cage — Empty Words IV [excerpt]
ABOUT THE RECORDINGS
Robert Dick — Molecular Motion
Robert Dick first appeared at Subtropics in 1990. When he returned in 1996, he had planned a concert of his solo flute compositions at the Miami Beach Woman’s Club. After a conversation about the festival as a place where artists could experiment and take chances, he surprised us with an entirely improvised program.
Molecular Motion comes from that performance. It was recorded by Steven Malagodi of WLRN Radio.
Earle Brown — December 1952
Earle Brown visited Miami in 1998 for Subtropics 10. In addition to conducting the New World Symphony in his open-form composition Sign Sounds, he conducted a realization of December 1952 during the Subtropics Marathon at Gallery Douyon in Coral Gables.
The performers included members of the festival ensemble, guests from Tampa’s BONK Festival and students from Florida International University’s New Music Ensemble: Luis Gomez-Imbert, Drew Krause, Lisa LaCross, David Rogers and Margaret Lancaster.
Jon Gibson — Stalling Into Elation
Jon Gibson performed at the Miami Beach Botanical Garden during Subtropics 12 in 2000. The concert took place outdoors at night, in a torch-lit area behind the greenhouse, where the sounds of the garden and the surrounding city entered naturally into the music.
The recording of Stalling Into Elation was taken directly from the soundboard.
Needle and Sony_Mao — Samantha Fox Interview (Algedonic Loop)
The collection also includes Samantha Fox Interview (Algedonic Loop) by Miami artists Needle and Sony_Mao.
Gustavo Matamoros and Robert Gregory — Crypsis
Robert Gregory and I collaborated on several works during the approximately five years he lived in Miami. These works used minute fragments of his highly distinctive speaking voice as the source for changing sequences of sound.
Crypsis was performed during PUNTO: Music Out of a Cage in 1991 at Center for the Fine Arts. Listening to the recording now, I believe its source was Gregory saying the words “so anyway so.”
[Read about Crypsis]
Alvin Lucier and Thomas Buckner — Music for Baritone and Slow Sweep Pure Wave Oscillators
Subtropics presented a mini-retrospective of Alvin Lucier’s work in 1993. During his approximately ten-day visit, he created the installation Music for Piano and Half Closed Lid and composed Serenade for Oboe and Strings for the festival ensemble.
Thomas Buckner later performed Music for Baritone and Slow Sweep Pure Wave Oscillators at Subtropics in 1996. The festival recording did not adequately capture the beating patterns produced in the room, so Lucier, Buckner and Tom Hamilton allowed us to include an excerpt from Hamilton’s recording instead.
John Cage — Empty Words IV [excerpt]
John Cage came to Miami for Subtropics 3 in April 1991. His “short visit” lasted three and a half days and included a concert I curated around musicians Anthony de Mare, Robert Black, Joseph Celli, Jan Williams and Lisa LaCross.
The excerpt on Breath comes from Cage’s performance of Empty Words IV on April 5, 1991, at the Wolfson Auditorium of Miami-Dade Community College. More than 300 people attended the ninety-minute performance.